tag:theconversation.com,2011:/institutions/university-of-cape-town-691/articlesThe University of Cape Town2018-12-16T09:11:19Ztag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1078162018-12-16T09:11:19Z2018-12-16T09:11:19ZFaith in turbulent times: a priest's autobiography of life under apartheid<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/249645/original/file-20181210-76986-typ4gz.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&amp;q=45&amp;auto=format&amp;w=496&amp;fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Peter Storey (middle) outside the Central Methodist Church in Johannesburg, 1985.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Supplied</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>The <a href="https://theconversation.com/world-politics-explainer-the-end-of-apartheid-101602">argument</a> has dragged on long enough about who should take the credit for bringing South Africa’s apartheid regime to an <a href="https://www.sahistory.org.za/article/history-apartheid-south-africa">end</a>. Of course, some will immediately respond by saying that apartheid has not yet been defeated – it still <a href="https://www.businesslive.co.za/rdm/politics/2016-05-27-why-white-privilege-continues-in-post-apartheid-south-africa/">lives on</a> in innumerable ways. But at least the regime that promulgated the legislation and promoted the ideology has been defeated, whatever remnants remain. </p>
<p>So who, in fact, brought that regime to its knees? There is probably no single, or simple, answer. But one of the groups that certainly played a role was the faith community. Christian leaders like Beyers Naudé, Desmond Tutu and Allan Boesak, played a very significant role in fighting apartheid. </p>
<p>The flip side, though, is that some churches actively supported apartheid. Others, meanwhile, remained silent when they should have spoken out.</p>
<p>Still, the struggle of some churches – leaders and congregants – against apartheid was both profoundly non-racial and ecumenical. While black voices were predominant, white voices of protest and resistance could also be heard and observed. And while a large number were Methodists, as was Nelson Mandela himself, nobody involved in the church struggle was bothered about denominational affiliation or loyalty. </p>
<p>This, I suggest, is the framework within which to read Peter Storey’s very readable, absorbing, and at times, as the title suggests, provocative book, <em><a href="http://www.nb.co.za/Books/20560">I Beg to Differ: Ministry Amidst Teargas</a></em>. Storey, who eventually became the Presiding Bishop of the Methodist Church as well as president of the South African Council of Churches, was one of the white church leaders who played a very important role in the church struggle against apartheid.</p>
<h2>Convictions</h2>
<p>Who was Storey, what shaped his convictions, and what role did he play, are naturally questions we might ask. And we should ask them, not only out of interest, but in order to understand better how Christian moral and political convictions are nurtured. How did a young white South African brought up under apartheid, educated in a segregated school (all were), and an officer in the South African navy, become a leading opponent of the system? </p>
<p>Also, how did he maintain his faith and hope through many a crisis and challenge, often caught between different factions, and sometimes sidelined. How did he learn to say:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>I beg to differ!</p>
</blockquote>
<p>An autobiography often resembles an iceberg. We are introduced to what is on the surface, but we don’t always get to see what is beneath. Storey’s narrative certainly presents a public face: the face of a leader, a man of Christian conviction, compassion and commitment. He also takes his reader below that persona to his early upbringing as a son of the manse (his father was also a minister), and later as the devoted husband of Elizabeth – a remarkable person in her own right, and to whom his book is dedicated – and the father of four sons, some of whom followed him into the ministry.</p>
<p>Storey also writes about his personal struggles which are inevitably part of the life of a leader committed to truth. We also discover his interest in making furniture and his interest in sailing. I can speak about this from personal experience. Under his captaincy and along with Elizabeth, my wife and I successfully sailed off the Cape Town coast on a stormy afternoon in what seemed to us a rather small craft for such an occasion. But that is a parable of Storey’s leadership, steering a sometimes threatened ark through choppy seas, and doing so with a firm hand on the rudder.</p>
<p>Back to his public face, which perhaps first came to prominence when he became a student leader at Rhodes University, gaining a little notoriety in the process. Then as minister of the Methodist church in Cape Town’s <a href="http://capetownhistory.com/?page_id=238">District Six</a>, where he was in the forefront of opposition to the shameful forced removals by the apartheid regime that reduced a vibrant community to a vacant, ghostly plot of land. </p>
<p>Next as a minister in Johannesburg, first in Braamfontein and then at the Central Methodist Mission in the heart of the city. Storey left a large imprint in all these places and contexts.</p>
<p>He spent some of his retirement years as a professor in the US teaching many an aspiring minister. On his return to South Africa he played a leading role in establishing the <a href="https://www.smms.ac.za/">Seth Mokitimi Methodist Seminary</a> in Pietermaritzburg. </p>
<p>There is so much more that could be said about Storey’s life and witness, from his brave participation in many a protest march, to his courageous standing up for the truth during the Truth and Reconciliation Commission process. </p>
<p>Not all will necessarily agree with him on all he said. I had a few quibbles here and there, but Storey always allowed others to differ just as he begged to do so himself. That is, after all, at the heart if democracy. So anyone interested in the role of the church not just in the struggle against apartheid, but also in the struggle to build a transformed democratic society, should take up this book and read. You won’t be disappointed.</p>
<p><em><a href="http://www.nb.co.za/Books/20560">I Beg to Differ: Ministry Amidst Teargas</a></em> ,Cape Town: Tafelberg._</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/107816/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>John de Gruchy does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Christian leaders played a very significant role in fighting apartheid. One of them, Peter Storey, tells in his autobiography what shaped his convictions.John de Gruchy, Emeritus Professor of Christian Studies, University of Cape TownLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1067932018-12-03T11:49:36Z2018-12-03T11:49:36ZThere's no simple answer to what counts as 'science' in teaching reading<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/247000/original/file-20181123-149335-113ckzj.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&amp;q=45&amp;auto=format&amp;w=496&amp;fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Two adversarial approaches have dominated debates about teaching reading for decades.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Xolisa Guzula</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>What is the best way to teach children to read? This apparently simple question has, in fact, has been the subject of robust and often polarised debate. </p>
<p>Recently the New York Times ran <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2018/10/26/opinion/sunday/phonics-teaching-reading-wrong-way.html">an opinion piece</a> titled “Why are we still teaching reading the wrong way?’”. It claimed that “teacher education programmes continue to ignore the sound science behind how people become readers”. </p>
<p>As a teacher educator who also supports sound science, I think there are two key issues to consider before confidently staking a claim about the “right way” to teach reading. First, what do we mean by “reading”? And second, what counts as sound science? </p>
<p>This is important because the answers guide how reading is – or isn’t – taught and tested. If we hold the view that reading is primarily about recognising letter-sound relationships and recognising as well as pronouncing words correctly, then we are likely to focus on instructing children systematically in letter-sound relationships (a phonics approach). </p>
<p>If we think that reading is primarily a meaning-making process that comes naturally to children, we will focus on engaging children in meaning-making through story reading and writing meaningful texts (a whole language approach). </p>
<p>These two adversarial approaches have dominated debates about teaching reading for decades. My colleagues and I in the newly formed <a href="https://bua-lit.org.za/">bua-lit collective</a> believe that this is a false, if not confusing, dichotomy. We are language and literacy researchers, activists, educators and teacher educators working together to share our collective knowledge and research about literacy, particularly in multilingual contexts.</p>
<p>We <a href="https://bua-lit.org.za/our-position/">argue</a> that learning to read involves more than decoding letter-sound relationships and making meaning from isolated texts. Children also need to be engaged in specific, meaningful daily practices that demand and model different kinds of reading as well as writing, involving a wide range of types of texts. </p>
<p>Children need to have a purpose to read and write (beyond assessment), positive reading and writing role models, and they need to learn how language and meaning work differently in different kinds of texts – for instance, in a story versus instructions. </p>
<h2>Unpacking science</h2>
<p>There is <a href="https://arxiv.org/pdf/1805.10602.pdf">a view</a> among some philosophers of science that science is a discipline with an accepted and uncontroversial methodology. It tests hypotheses by gathering empirical data to discover general laws that make the world more predictable. This approach assumes a certainty to scientific knowledge, and often values data collection above theorising. </p>
<p>Yet this view of science is challenged within science itself. For example, theoretical physicist Carlo Rovelli <a href="https://arxiv.org/pdf/1805.10602.pdf">offers</a> an alternative position: science is not about certainty. The methodology of science is not “written in stone”, and its conceptual structures have changed over time. In fact, Rovelli states the core of science is continuous uncertainty and “scientifically proven” is a contradiction in terms. </p>
<p>Knowledge in science has changed fundamentally over hundreds of years. Science is an integral part of the modern world, and we understand more about the world through scientific endeavours. But there is much we don’t understand. Sound science requires not just careful methods, but also conceptual clarity about what is being measured.</p>
<p>Unfortunately the “sound science” referred to in discussions about the teaching of reading generally ignores such critiques. It operates from a narrow understanding of what science is, and also of what reading is. </p>
<p>That’s a problem. Positivist science is relatively successful in testing children’s alphabetic knowledge – do they recognise and can they name individual letters of the alphabet, or can they decode the word cat as “c-a-t”. </p>
<p>But it is far more difficult to test their ability to make meaning of and to engage critically with a text. This is because every person’s ability to understand a text depends on their existing knowledge, experiences, language resources and the practices and activities they’ve engaged in.</p>
<h2>Making meaning</h2>
<p>Can you read the sentences below?</p>
<p>Being architecture neutral is a big chunk of being portable, but there’s more to it than that. Unlike C and C++, there are no “implementation dependent” aspects of the specification. The sizes of the primitive data types are specified, as is the behaviour of arithmetic on them.</p>
<p>You probably “read” that paragraph quickly and fluently. But how much of it did you understand? If you are familiar with the language and activities of computer programming, you may understand quite a lot. But many, although they recognise the letter-sound combinations and individual words, can make little sense of it. Even being able to “read” these sentences fluently doesn’t help us. </p>
<p>Why? Because we don’t have the appropriate background knowledge nor experience in computer programming. Making meaning through reading is a highly complex process. It goes far beyond letter and word recognition. Your ability to decode that test passage should show that “decoding” is not the same as reading.</p>
<p>This fact becomes extremely clear when you consider some children’s poor “reading” performance. In South Africa, for instance, most children don’t have access to rich print resources at home or in school. They are <a href="http://sabookcouncil.co.za/wp-content/uploads/Final-Report-NRS-2016.pdf">not exposed</a> to people around them reading the kind of texts they need to read at school.</p>
<p>This means most of the country’s children are at the mercy of a narrow approach whose proponents believe “reading” is a purely cognitive process that can be scientifically tested. This approach won’t enable children to learn to read in a way that helps them to succeed at school beyond the early grades. </p>
<p>As well as explicit teaching of decoding and comprehension strategies, children need to participate extensively in purposeful reading and writing practices in order to become successful readers and writers. These activities are not easily assessed – but we cannot allow what is easily measured to drive what counts as successful reading for South African children. </p>
<p><em>Carolyn McKinney writes here on behalf of the <a href="http://www.bua-lit.org.za/">bua-lit collective</a>.</em></p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/106793/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Carolyn McKinney receives funding from the National Research Foundation.</span></em></p>Reading involves more than decoding letter-sound relationships and making meaning from isolated texts.Carolyn McKinney, Associate Professor in Language Education, University of Cape TownLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1073682018-11-28T12:57:36Z2018-11-28T12:57:36ZOvercoming the real -- and perceived -- barriers to HIV testing<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/246891/original/file-20181122-182059-1aqwx1s.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&amp;q=45&amp;auto=format&amp;w=496&amp;fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">The WHO recommends testing for HIV every 6 to 12 months.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Shutterstock</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>There was a time when HIV was untreatable, heavily stigmatised, and the benefits of testing weren’t as clear as they are now. But that was 25 years ago. </p>
<p>HIV testing remains the crucial entry point for all HIV services, including both prevention and treatment. </p>
<p>When someone tests and learns that they are HIV positive, there is an opportunity to access life-saving treatment, ensure their own well-being and that of their intimate partners. When someone tests and learns they are HIV negative, there is an opportunity to evaluate their risk and assess which HIV prevention options are the best fit for them.</p>
<p>UNAIDS <a href="http://www.unaids.org/sites/default/files/media_asset/Global_AIDS_update_2017_en.pdf#page=100">estimates</a> that 76% of people living with HIV in eastern and southern Africa know their status. While an HIV-positive diagnosis can still provoke fear among some, <a href="http://www.hsrc.ac.za/uploads/pageContent/9234/SABSSMV_Impact_Assessment_Summary_ZA_ADS_cleared_PDFA4.pdf">85% of people with HIV</a> in South Africa know their status. </p>
<p>The goal is that by 2020, 90% of people with HIV should know <a href="https://www.spotlightnsp.co.za/2018/07/18/new-estimates-of-sas-progress-toward-90-90-90/">their status</a>. Increasing the uptake of testing is an essential first step in this quest, which is part of a package of goals aimed at ending the epidemic.</p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="http://theconversation.com/hiv-aids-and-90-90-90-what-is-it-and-why-does-it-matter-62136">HIV, AIDS and 90-90-90: what is it and why does it matter?</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<p>Many people still struggle to overcome real and perceived barriers to testing. These include access to testing and the stigma related to testing. However many of the hurdles still in place might not be as big as once thought.</p>
<h2>What’s standing in the way of 90%</h2>
<p><strong>Access:</strong> HIV testing is free in South Africa in all public clinics and health facilities, but for many people just getting to the clinic can seem like a major barrier. Whether this is because of long walking distances, the need to take time off work, or simply not prioritising or having the time to build testing into their health care routine.</p>
<p>One solution lies in the advent – and increasing availability – of <a href="https://sajhivmed.org.za/index.php/hivmed/article/view/775/1030">HIV self-testing</a> kits. Now getting an HIV test can be as simple as going to the pharmacy and following the instructions.</p>
<p><strong>Being judged:</strong> A common concern is around confidentiality and being judged. This is especially evident among young people who are at risk of HIV infection, but may feel as if they would be judged for being sexually active. It’s estimated that <a href="https://www.gov.za/sites/default/files/nsp%20hiv%20tb%20sti_a.pdf">2000</a> adolescent girls and young women in South Africa are infected every week. </p>
<p>This problem needs to be tackled by helping young people access testing. This can be done by providing <a href="http://opensaldru.uct.ac.za/bitstream/handle/11090/813/201604_SaldruPolicyBrief_02.pdf?sequence=1">youth friendly services</a> where health care professionals are friendly, non-judgemental and supportive. Testing must be normalised and seen as an appropriate, responsible and acceptable thing to do. Many clinics already undergo training and accreditation for the provision of adolescent and youth friendly services. But it’s not universal.</p>
<p><strong>Stigma:</strong> Aside from stigma around HIV, many <a href="http://www.unaids.org/en/topic/key-populations">high-risk groups</a> (such as sex workers, men who have sex with men, and injecting drug users) still face enormous barriers to accessing traditional services due to stigmatisation, discrimination and even criminalisation. This is especially true in sub-Saharan Africa where <a href="https://www.iasociety.org/The-latest/News/ArticleID/209/Condemning-Tanzania%E2%80%99s-anti-gay-initiatives">anti-LGBTI laws</a> are rife and few protective mechanisms exist.</p>
<p>The way this can be solved is by ensuring that testing campaigns and environments encourage everyone to test. More work must be done to combat bad laws and policies, stigma and discrimination. The fight should be against the virus, and not the people it targets.</p>
<p><strong>Low risk perception:</strong> The World Health Organisation and the South African government recommend testing every six to 12 months. But most people only test when they feel they have been at risk. Risk perception is highly subjective and sometimes incorrect. In a South African context, where the prevalence of HIV is so high – <a href="http://www.hsrc.ac.za/uploads/pageContent/9234/SABSSMV_Impact_Assessment_Summary_ZA_ADS_cleared_PDFA4.pdf">20.6%</a> of adults aged 15 to 49 years have HIV – everyone is at risk and should get tested every year.</p>
<p>To encourage people to test more frequently, campaigns should continue to focus on the fact that HIV doesn’t discriminate. HIV testing also increases the opportunity to screen for multiple conditions, such as tuberculosis and other sexually transmitted infections, at the same time. This integration of HIV testing services with other health services is seen as a way of reducing stigma, increasing access, and is a move towards achieving universal health care.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/107368/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Linda-Gail Bekker receives funding from various research agencies both local and international. She is the immediate past president of the International AIDS Society. </span></em></p>Knowing your HIV status is key to accessing life-saving treatment or evaluating the best prevention options.Linda-Gail Bekker, Professor of medicine and deputy director of the Desmond Tutu HIV Centre at the Institute of Infectious Disease and Molecular Medicine, University of Cape TownLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1005092018-11-28T12:57:34Z2018-11-28T12:57:34ZBabies born to mums with HIV face higher risks even though they're HIV negative<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/246685/original/file-20181121-161641-w8psje.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&amp;q=45&amp;auto=format&amp;w=496&amp;fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">The largest number of HIV-exposed but uninfected children are in South Africa.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Shutterstock</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>One of the most remarkable public health successes of the last decade in southern Africa has been the reduction in the number of babies born with HIV. This was achieved through the provision of antiretroviral therapy to pregnant and breastfeeding women living with HIV. For example, the number of new HIV infections in children in South Africa has come down from a peak of 70 000 in 2003 to 13 000 in <a href="http://aidsinfo.unaids.org">2017</a>.</p>
<p>Nevertheless, worldwide there are still an estimated <a href="http://aidsinfo.unaids.org">14.8 million</a> children under the age of 15 who were born HIV uninfected but have been exposed to their mother’s HIV during pregnancy.</p>
<p>The largest number of HIV-exposed but uninfected children – <a href="http://aidsinfo.unaids.org">3.2 million</a> – are in South Africa.</p>
<p>A staggering <a href="http://www.health.gov.za/index.php/shortcodes/2015-03-29-10-42-47/2015-04-30-08-18-10/2015-04-30-08-21-56?download=2584:2015-national-antenatal-hiv-prevalence-survey-final-23oct17">30%</a> of pregnant women in South Africa have HIV. Their infants are exposed to both HIV and antiretroviral drugs during pregnancy and breastfeeding. HIV-exposed but uninfected children don’t have HIV, so what’s the big deal?</p>
<p>It is a big deal because HIV-uninfected children born to mothers with HIV are prone to infections that are more severe, are at almost two times greater risk of dying before their first birthday, and are more likely to be born prematurely than children born to mothers without HIV. </p>
<p>In our <a href="https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/30321432">recent study</a> we set out to try and quantify the contribution of deaths in HIV-exposed but uninfected infants to the overall infant mortality rates in Botswana and South Africa.</p>
<p>What we found was that because children born to mothers with HIV make up almost 1 in every 4 infants in Botswana and South Africa, and because they die more often than children born to mothers without HIV – even when they are HIV-uninfected themselves – this contributed to a higher infant mortality rate in both countries.</p>
<h2>The risks</h2>
<p>Even when they’re not HIV infected, children born to women with HIV experience a complex package of detrimental exposures. </p>
<p>For example, HIV-exposed but uninfected infants are still more often born <a href="https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/29040569">preterm or of low birth weight</a>. This increases their risk for complications and death early in life. </p>
<p>They are also exposed to more infectious pathogens in the home such as <a href="https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/27393540">tuberculosis</a>. </p>
<p>There are other problems too. Breastfeeding has enormous nutritional and immunological benefits, but has often been avoided in infants born to women with HIV. Maternal access to antiretrovirals has made it safer but sustained breastfeeding is still low. One study in South Africa showed that, irrespective of HIV-status, women stopped <a href="https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/29959720">breastfeeding</a> their babies on average when the infants were eight weeks old.</p>
<p>On top of this, HIV-exposed infants more often have mothers who are unwell or <a href="https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/27091659">who have died</a>. And HIV-affected households experience challenging socioeconomic <a href="https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/27392008">circumstances</a> that can make children more vulnerable. These exposures in the <a href="http://www.who.int/maternal_child_adolescent/child/nurturing-care-framework/en/">first 1000 days of life</a> can be detrimental to early childhood development and have life-long consequences. </p>
<p>In addition, infants born to women with HIV are subject to factors during pregnancy that unexposed infants aren’t. These include exposure to HIV particles, that may make their <a href="https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/27049574">immune systems</a> develop differently. And these infants are exposed to at least three antiretroviral drugs given to the mother during pregnancy. </p>
<h2>What the research found</h2>
<p>To estimate the contribution of deaths in HIV-exposed but uninfected infants to the overall infant mortality rates we used previously published research comparing the mortality risk in HIV-exposed uninfected infants to risk of mortality in <a href="https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/27456985">unexposed infants</a>, as well as United Nations estimates of infant mortality in Botswana and South Africa. </p>
<p>In Botswana, HIV exposed uninfected infants accounted for 26% of the infant population but 42% of all infant deaths. Similarly, in South Africa HIV exposed uninfected infants accounted for 23% of the infant population but 38% of all infant deaths. </p>
<p>Putting this into actual numbers, this extra mortality in HIV exposed uninfected infants increased the overall HIV-uninfected infant mortality rate in both Botswana and South Africa from around 30 deaths per 1000 infants to 35 deaths per 1000 in the year 2013. </p>
<p>Botswana and South Africa have adopted the World Health Organisation’s recommendation to provide lifelong antiretrovirals to all pregnant and breastfeeding women with HIV. But there’s a lack of research comparing the mortality of HIV-exposed to unexposed infants under these new guidelines. Our calculations are therefore based on the year 2013, the most recent year before policy shifts in both countries. There is emerging <a href="https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/29272387">evidence</a> though of a persisting increase in mortality in HIV-exposed infants even with maternal antiretroviral therapy. </p>
<h2>What next</h2>
<p>With 1 in every 4 children in Botswana and South Africa being HIV and ARV-exposed, robust systems need to be put in place to monitor the long-term safety of these exposures during pregnancy. Countries need to invest in research to understand why HIV-exposed children still have an increased risk of dying. And countries need to ensure that routine child health interventions, such as immunisations and promotion of optimal durations of breastfeeding, are uniformly reaching HIV-exposed children.</p>
<p>Most critically, countries like South Africa and Botswana with high HIV infection rates need to find responsible, transparent and accurate ways of sharing what is known and being done about the risks of HIV-exposure with HIV-affected families and involve them in finding solutions.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/100509/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Amy Slogrove receives funding from research funding agencies on a competitive funding basis including the US National Institutes of Health and the International AIDS Society. </span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Kathleen M. Powis receives funding from the National Institute of Health and from the Collaborative Initiative for Pediatric HIV Education and Research. </span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Mary-Ann Davies receives funding from research funding agencies on a competitive basis including the National Institutes of Health and the International AIDS Society.</span></em></p>HIV negative children born to women with HIV have a greater risk of dying before their first birthday.Amy Slogrove, Senior lecturer in Paediatrics and Child Health, Stellenbosch UniversityKathleen M. Powis, Assistant Professor, Harvard Medical School Mary-Ann Davies, Associate Professor and Director of the Centre for Infectious Diseases Epidemiology and Research, University of Cape TownLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1065562018-11-27T13:17:44Z2018-11-27T13:17:44ZHow scientists are working together to solve one of the universe's mysteries<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/246628/original/file-20181121-161641-1rc00vw.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&amp;q=45&amp;auto=format&amp;w=496&amp;fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">An artist’s impression of fast radio bursts in the sky above the Australian SKA precursor, ASKAP.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">OzGrav, Swinburne University of Technology</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>One of the most baffling puzzles of modern astrophysics is the nature of Fast Radio Bursts, which were <a href="https://arxiv.org/pdf/0709.4301.pdf">discovered in 2007</a>. These are seemingly <a href="http://frbcat.org">rare</a>, extremely bright flashes of light with radio wavelengths. They last <a href="https://arxiv.org/pdf/0709.4301.pdf">only milliseconds</a>; <a href="https://arxiv.org/pdf/1504.00200.pdf">originate outside</a> our galaxy, the Milky Way; come from regions with <a href="https://arxiv.org/pdf/1801.03965.pdf">enormously strong magnetic fields</a>; and <a href="https://arxiv.org/pdf/1505.06220.pdf">pass through a significant amount of gas or dust</a> before reaching Earth. </p>
<p>All of these facts may make it sound as though scientists know a lot about Fast Radio Bursts. In reality, we don’t. For instance, though we know they’re not from our galaxy, we don’t know where exactly they come from. We don’t know what causes them. And we’re not sure whether they might be useful as <a href="https://arxiv.org/abs/1711.11277">cosmological</a> standards to measure the large scale properties of our universe.</p>
<p>Dozens of theories about Fast Radio Bursts have been proposed. Some conform to standard physics. Others are more exotic, including <a href="https://arxiv.org/abs/1807.01976">cosmic strings</a> – hypothetical, one-dimensional structures formed in the early universe – or even rather bizarre: one theory <a href="https://www.newscientist.com/article/2124209-could-fast-radio-bursts-really-be-powering-alien-space-ships">suggests</a> that aliens are responsible.</p>
<p>Now, in an attempt to discover the truth about Fast Radio Bursts, we have created <a href="https://frbtheorycat.org/index.php/Main_Page">a catalogue</a> that lists <a href="https://arxiv.org/abs/1810.05836">each theory</a>, along with its pros and cons. Scientists from around the world can weigh in, and new data and discoveries will be added throughout the process.</p>
<p>Some of this data will come from projects on the African continent, like the <a href="https://theconversation.com/new-telescope-chases-the-mysteries-of-radio-flashes-and-dark-energy-101607">Hydrogen Intensity and Real-time Analysis eXperient</a> (HIRAX), MeerKAT, and the Square Kilometre Array (SKA), which are expected to discover and localise thousands of Fast Radio Bursts.</p>
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Read more:
<a href="http://theconversation.com/africas-meerkat-first-light-images-have-blown-all-expectations-65246">Africa's MeerKAT 'first light' images have blown all expectations</a>
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<p>This platform will produce a great deal of knowledge. It will also provide valuable insight into scientific sociology as international researchers work together and ultimately, we hope, identify the most acceptable model. </p>
<h2>A range of theories</h2>
<p>Perhaps precisely because they are so elusive, Fast Radio Bursts have received a lot of attention from astronomers, astrophysicists, cosmologists, and physicists in the years since their discovery.</p>
<p>These are the main theories that have emerged so far. </p>
<ul>
<li><p>Fast Radio Bursts involve types of neutron stars, such as pulsars (which rotate rapidly) or magnetars (which are highly magnetised). These are probably the most plausible theories, since neutron stars’ intrinsic and extremely large magnetic fields can naturally fulfil the energy requirements for Fast Radio Bursts.</p></li>
<li><p>The merging of astronomical bodies (such as black holes, neutron stars and white dwarfs), and their collapse, has been proposed as a possible origin for Fast Radio Bursts.</p></li>
</ul>
<p>In such processes, enormous amounts of energy are released over short timescales. This could possibly create radiation akin to Fast Radio Bursts.</p>
<ul>
<li><p>some of the more exotic models have a more theoretical basis. They involve hypothetical objects such as quark stars (quarks are the subatomic particles that constitute neutrons and protons), axion stars (axions are extremely light, hypothetical subatomic particles), and <a href="https://science.nasa.gov/astrophysics/focus-areas/what-is-dark-energy">dark matter</a>: the hypothetical, unobserved matter that is believed to account for 27% of the total matter content of the universe. </p></li>
<li><p>Another fairly improbable theory is that Fast Radio Bursts are lightning striking on pulsars.</p></li>
</ul>
<p>And then there’s the suggestion that Fast Radio Bursts are evidence of aliens. It’s certainly the most unusual of the proposed theories, but it cannot be ruled out as a possibility yet.</p>
<p>Although it’s unlikely, Fast Radio Bursts may be signals from a beacon set up by an extraterrestrial civilisation, or perhaps from light sails that harness photons to travel across the galaxy. </p>
<p>There’s a remarkable variation in these models, and it’s hard work to narrow down the options and reach consensus. Of the 50 theories or models proposed to date, only three have been eliminated. This is what prompted us to set up the catalogue and to invite engagement from the broader scientific community.</p>
<h2>Platform for debate</h2>
<p>It’s no easy task to get scientists talking to each other about Fast Radio Bursts. That’s because the scientists in question have different specialisations and are from all over the world. </p>
<p>The online catalogue provides a suitable and accessible platform for discussion, debate, and the sharing of knowledge. There is also a traceable history, which creates an opportunity for us to study how as humans we work together to solve scientific problems – and perhaps how this process can be optimised in the future. </p>
<p>Part of our motivation, as theoretical physicists, was to develop this engagement and to dive in ourselves. The problems are rich and the waters are deep. </p>
<p>Data about Fast Radio Bursts is starting to pour in now, thanks to such game-changers as MeerKAT and HIRAX. As it arrives, is examined and papers are published, we’ll be able to start ruling out theories and digging deeper into viable theories. Within five years, this mystery could be solved.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/106556/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Emma Platts is supported by a PhD fellowship from the South African National Institute for Theoretical Physics (NITheP).</span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Amanda Weltman receives funding from The Department of Science and Technology and the National Research Foundation of South Africa. She is a member of the Global Young Academy and a Next Einstein Forum Laureate. </span></em></p>Perhaps precisely because they are so elusive, Fast Radio Bursts have received a lot of attention in the years since their discovery.Emma Platts, PhD Student, University of Cape TownAmanda Weltman, South African Research Chair in Physical Cosmology, Department of Mathematics and Applied Mathematics, University of Cape TownLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1069422018-11-22T13:25:17Z2018-11-22T13:25:17ZThe link between violence against women and children matters. Here's why<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/246412/original/file-20181120-161624-1wcgwgg.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&amp;q=45&amp;auto=format&amp;w=496&amp;fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Violence against children hinders them from reaching their full potential. </span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">shutterstock</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>Nearly half of women across South Africa are subjected to violence by an <a href="http://genderlinks.org.za/wp-content/uploads/imported/articles/attachments/12769_gender_based_violence_indicators_research______report_23february.pdf">intimate partner</a>. This in turn negatively affects about <a href="http://www.samj.org.za/index.php/samj/article/view/12218">one in four children</a>. A child who is exposed to violence in the home also risks being abused and will, quite reasonably, fear for their own safety.</p>
<p>The country’s government and civil society recently responded to the scourge of violence against women by hosting a <a href="https://www.health-e.org.za/2018/11/01/government-activists-discuss-gender-based-violence-and-femicide/">summit</a> to galvanise political support and develop solutions to end this sort of violence. Also recently, the <a href="http://thetotalshutdown.org.za/">#TotalShutDown movement</a> embarked on protests across the country demanding an end to violence against women. </p>
<p>This focus is a critical step towards addressing South Africa’s immense problem of gender based violence. But it’s important for campaigners to recognise that the problems of violence against women and violence against children are <a href="https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/28395846">deeply intertwined</a>.</p>
<p>There’s an increasing global recognition that violence against women and children often occur together in homes, and are driven by the same factors. For instance, young boys who witness their mothers being abused in the home or who are abused themselves are more likely to <a href="https://nebraska.pure.elsevier.com/en/publications/exposure-to-domestic-violence-a-meta-analysis-of-child-and-adoles">harm women and children later in life</a>. </p>
<p>In South Africa, as in many other places, social and cultural norms promote a gendered hierarchy: men are in a superior position over women and children. These social norms provide considerable space for men’s violence towards women and children to be tolerated. They are manifested in expressions of masculinity, enforcement of gender norms and the way that children are disciplined.</p>
<h2>Intergenerational violence</h2>
<p><a href="http://www.undp.org/content/dam/rbap/docs/Research%20&amp;%20Publications/womens_empowerment/RBAP-Gender-2013-P4P-VAW-Report.pdf">Evidence shows</a> that men’s use of violence and controlling behaviour towards an intimate partner often extends to physically punishing their children as a means of discipline. Importantly, research is now <a href="https://www.whatworks.co.za/documents/publications/116-vac-vaw-evidence-brief-new-crop-1/file">revealing</a> that women who experience violence at the hands of a partner are more likely to use physical punishment to discipline their children. This further drives the cycle of intergenerational violence.</p>
<p>The impact of experiencing or witnessing violence as a child has wide-ranging and long lasting effects. When a child experiences violence at home, they learn to tolerate violence. They are also at an increased risk of suffering from poor mental health, engaging in drug and alcohol abuse and risky sexual behaviours, and contracting HIV. They are also more at risk of behavioural problems such as aggression, delinquency and poor social functioning. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/246408/original/file-20181120-161624-10hi3vo.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&amp;q=45&amp;auto=format&amp;w=754&amp;fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/246408/original/file-20181120-161624-10hi3vo.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&amp;q=45&amp;auto=format&amp;w=600&amp;h=400&amp;fit=crop&amp;dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/246408/original/file-20181120-161624-10hi3vo.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&amp;q=30&amp;auto=format&amp;w=600&amp;h=400&amp;fit=crop&amp;dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/246408/original/file-20181120-161624-10hi3vo.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&amp;q=15&amp;auto=format&amp;w=600&amp;h=400&amp;fit=crop&amp;dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/246408/original/file-20181120-161624-10hi3vo.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&amp;q=45&amp;auto=format&amp;w=754&amp;h=503&amp;fit=crop&amp;dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/246408/original/file-20181120-161624-10hi3vo.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&amp;q=30&amp;auto=format&amp;w=754&amp;h=503&amp;fit=crop&amp;dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/246408/original/file-20181120-161624-10hi3vo.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&amp;q=15&amp;auto=format&amp;w=754&amp;h=503&amp;fit=crop&amp;dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Social and cultural norms that place men in a superior position over women and children need to change.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">EPA-EFE/Nic Bothma</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>It’s also important to understand that children who have experienced violence are more likely to lack empathy towards others. That means they’re more likely to perpetrate violence. It is this aspect of exposure to violence that drives its intergenerational transmission. This has a direct impact on their relationships with intimate partners, as well as their ability to be emotionally responsive parents.</p>
<p>Growing up in violent households affects a child’s sense of security, self worth and how they relate to other children. In <a href="https://www.researchgate.net/publication/278393627_'So_Now_I'm_the_Man'_Intimate_Partner_Femicide_and_Its_Interconnections_With_Expressions_of_Masculinities_in_South_Africa">qualitative research</a> I conducted among violent men, they spoke about having previously witnessed violence against their mother by a father or stepfather.</p>
<p>Many of the men described feeling scared for their own safety. They also felt powerless to protect their mother. It’s important for society to respond to both problems in a coordinated way to reduce their burden simultaneously.</p>
<h2>Seeking solutions</h2>
<p>South Africa’s response to both violence against women and children has, until now, been happening in silos. It’s important that people start to join the dots. It makes sense to integrate approaches to both problems.</p>
<p>The evidence showing what works on joint programmes to address violence against women and violence against children is only starting to emerge in low and middle-income settings. Successful programmes are targeting multiple stakeholders, challenging social norms about gender relations and the use of violence. At the same time, such programmes are also supporting greater communication and shared decision making among family members.</p>
<p>South Africa has signed on to be a pathfinder country, as part of the United Nations’ <a href="http://www.end-violence.org/">Global Partnership to end violence against children</a>. In line with this commitment, the government is developing a programme of action to end violence against women and children. </p>
<p>If children are to reach their full potential and the cycle of intergenerational violence is to be broken, South Africa must consider collaborative solutions. Any programme of action must be aimed at preventing violence before it happens and providing an effective response and support to those affected by violence.</p>
<p><em>The author is a contributor to the <a href="http://www.ci.uct.ac.za/ci/child-gauge/2018">South African Child Gauge 2018</a>, which was released this week.</em></p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/106942/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Shanaaz Mathews receives funding from The RAITH Foundation and The ELMA Foundation </span></em></p>There's increasing global recognition that violence against women and children often occur together in homes.Shanaaz Mathews, Director, University of Cape TownLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1048562018-11-21T18:04:28Z2018-11-21T18:04:28ZHow we calculated the age of caves in the Cradle of Humankind -- and why it matters<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/243267/original/file-20181031-122162-fh2d2o.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&amp;rect=0%2C314%2C2576%2C989&amp;q=45&amp;auto=format&amp;w=496&amp;fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Beautifully preserved flowstone and sediment layers from the Cradle of Humankind.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Dr Robyn Pickering</span>, <span class="license">Author provided</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>As a species, we humans have always been fascinated in where we came from. Initially, it was believed humans couldn’t have originated from Africa. </p>
<p>That misconception began to shift slowly from 1925, when the modern discipline of palaeoanthropology – the study of our origins – was born in South Africa. That’s when Professor <a href="https://www.britannica.com/biography/Raymond-A-Dart">Raymond Dart</a> of the University of the Witwatersrand, in Johannesburg, recognised the significance of a small fossil skull brought to him from Taung, in the country’s North West province. </p>
<p>Dart realised the skull belonged to a creature that was neither fully ape nor man: it represented one of our distant ancestors, which he called <em><a href="http://humanorigins.si.edu/evidence/human-fossils/species/australopithecus-africanus">Australopithecus africanus</a></em>, meaning “<em>southern ape of Africa</em>”.</p>
<p>In the years that followed palaeontologist <a href="https://www.sahistory.org.za/dated-event/dr-robert-broom-discoverer-mrs-ples-born">Robert Broom</a> found more fossils of adult individuals from <a href="https://www.maropeng.co.za/content/page/explore-the-caves">Sterkfontein</a> and other caves in the area we now know as the <a href="https://www.gauteng.net/attractions/cradle_of_humankind">Cradle of Humankind</a>, just outside Johannesburg. His work cemented the fact that Africa was humankind’s birthplace, though it took years for many European scientists to come around to this.</p>
<p>Since the 1960s, this important area’s fossil record has largely taken a back seat to East African finds. That is because we didn’t know how old the caves in the Cradle of Humankind are, and so could not provide conclusive dates for the many fossils found in them. The geological setting in the Cradle is very different to <a href="https://geology.com/articles/east-africa-rift.shtml">East Africa’s Rift System</a>, where there are volcanic ash layers between the fossil beds; the ash layers can be dated, giving ages to the fossils. South Africa’s caves have no such volcanic layers.</p>
<p>But there are other types of rocks in the caves. Working with these, <a href="https://www.nature.com/articles/s41586-018-0711-0">my colleagues and I</a> used a method called uranium-lead dating to establish the ages of the caves in the Cradle of Humankind. This means we can narrow down the entire early human record of the Cradle to a few brief time windows between one and three million years ago. </p>
<p>One of the things that’s particularly exciting about this research is that we can – for the first time – compare South African hominins with their cousins in East Africa. </p>
<h2>Unlocking flowstones</h2>
<p>Caves are full of special rock types. There are <a href="https://www.britannica.com/science/stalactite#ref9559">stalagmites</a> which grow up from the floors, and <a href="https://www.britannica.com/science/stalactite#ref9559">stalactites</a> that hang down from the ceilings. As drip water in the cave flows along the floor, rocks known as <a href="https://www.britannica.com/science/flowstone">flowstones</a> form – and as they do, the mineral uranium is locked up inside them, crystal by crystal. This creates a sort of “clock” which tells us how old the flowstones are.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/243225/original/file-20181031-76405-1kcn9uo.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&amp;q=45&amp;auto=format&amp;w=754&amp;fit=clip">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Dr Pickering in a modern cave smiling about the beautiful flowstone on the cave floor.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Gavin Prideaux</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>We collected these flowstones from the various cave sites in the Cradle, took them back to the lab, then extracted and concentrated the tiny amount of uranium present inside then, as well as the even tinier amount of lead which has been produced from the uranium decay. These uranium and lead isotopes allow us to read the flowstones’ “clocks” – technically known as <a href="https://link.springer.com/referenceworkentry/10.1007%2F978-94-007-6326-5_193-1">uranium-lead dating</a>.</p>
<p>This <a href="https://link.springer.com/referenceworkentry/10.1007%2F978-94-007-6326-5_193-1">Uranium-lead dating</a> is not new. It’s well established and has been used by geologists for decades; its how we know how old the earth is. Nevertheless, it has’t been an easy process. My colleagues and I had to adapt the existing uranium-lead dating method specifically for the South African flowstones. The challenge was that in rocks of only a few million years old – young by geological standards – there’s not been much time to accumulate lead, the daughter decay product of uranium. </p>
<p>It’s taken us 13 years to reach this point. But it’s been worth the wait. </p>
<p>In our recent <a href="https://www.nature.com/articles/s41586-018-0711-0">Nature paper</a>, we put together the biggest ever data set of ages for the Cradle caves and were able to thoroughly analyse these and look for patterns. Specifically, we asked whether all the caves were open to the surface for fossils to wash into them and collecting fossils at the same time – or if each acted as its own little ecosystem. </p>
<p>The Cradle is a relatively small place (about 10 x 15 km), and we would expect that the same events should be recorded in all the caves at the same time. </p>
<p>And this is exactly what we found. We dated 29 flowstones, from eight caves, and found that the flowstones all date to the same six narrow time windows. For example, 2 million years ago, all the important cave sites across the Cradle were closed – nothing was being washed into them – with flowstone forming inside them.</p>
<p>We also know that flowstones can only form during times when it rains more. So by dating the flowstones, we are picking out these times in the past. For the first time we know our early human ancestors lived through big changes in the local climate. The sediments with the fossils in them inside the caves, are all sandwiched between flowstones. We interpret this pattern, flowstone-sediment-flowstone, as a signal of these changing climates, with the sediments representing drier times. </p>
<p>This means that all the fossils from the Cradle, hominin and other animal, accumulated during drier times.</p>
<h2>Dating the undateable</h2>
<p>The flowstone layers in the caves are the equivalent of the ash layers in the Rift Valley. With the uranium-lead ages for these flowstones, South Africa’s fossils can step out of the shadows of being undated and undateable. </p>
<p>This will allow the world to turn its attention back to the country’s incredibly rich fossil record with a greater understanding of when those fossils were formed and what that tells us about human evolution.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/104856/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Robyn Pickering receives funding from the Department of Science and Technology Centre of Excellence in Palaeosciences; the National Research Foundation African Origins Platform; The University of Cape Town; the Australian Research Council DECRA scheme; the University of Melbourne. </span></em></p>South Africa's fossils can step out of the shadows of being undated and undateable.Robyn Pickering, Lecturer, University of Cape TownLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1069572018-11-21T14:35:30Z2018-11-21T14:35:30ZFirst steps to tackling South Africa's abalone poaching<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/245746/original/file-20181115-194491-g3hd6a.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&amp;q=45&amp;auto=format&amp;w=496&amp;fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Gansbaai, a popular town in the Western Cape, South Africa, is battling illegal poaching. </span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Shutterstock</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>South Africa faces the possible <a href="http://wwfsassi.co.za/">collapse</a> of several inshore fisheries, particularly certain species of linefish, abalone and West Coast Rock Lobster. If nothing is done, not only will the ecology be poorer and change in many unexpected ways, but sea-derived livelihoods will collapse. The social structures that have maintained communities and relationships with the sea will follow. </p>
<p>In South Africa abalone is threatened because of a number of failures. These include a lack of opportunities combined with poverty in small towns along the country’s coast, as well as inefficiencies in fishery management. </p>
<p>Abalone is a mollusc of the genus Haliotis. It’s found in most parts of the world except one or two continental coasts and the polar regions. Along South Africa’s coast, baby abalone –- called spat -– shelter among the sea urchins that cohabit with the shellfish on our rocky shores. The muscular and mucous-rich meat of the sea snail is delicious. It’s been eaten along the South African coast for millennia. </p>
<p>The inside of an abalone shell – the opposite of its rough and camouflaged exterior – is covered in smooth nacre that runs a spectrum of colours from white to blue to purple. It’s this hidden beauty that earned it its Afrikaans name from the Dutch, <em>perlemoen</em> or “mother of pearl”. </p>
<p>The most sought-after species in South Africa is Haliotis Midae. It’s this species that’s highly prized in Asia, <a href="https://www.traffic.org/site/assets/files/8469/south-africas-illicit-abalone.pdf">particularly China</a>, and enjoys the same status as luxury foods such as the infamous shark-fin and bird’s nest soups. </p>
<p>Since the 1990’s, international trafficking in abalone has skyrocketed. Sophisticated syndicates move it in amounts that usually equal several million rands’ worth. This booming illegal trade has affected the country’s coastal socio-ecologies in two particularly devastating ways. One, the species is highly over-exploited; two, the lucrative nature of these poaching networks has roped in local and international criminal networks. </p>
<p>Currently, the South African government and these poaching networks are locked in a downward spiral of violence that’s seen the increased militarisation of both poaching and law enforcement activities. </p>
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<p>I saw this first hand in <a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0308597X14002401">my research</a> along the Indian Ocean coastline where I witnessed the effect of two decades of organised poaching on small coastal communities.</p>
<h2>What’s driving the illegal demand</h2>
<p>Since 1994 the government has attempted to transform the fishing industry to make it more inclusive. However, it’s failed to give small-scale fishers the number and size of fishing rights they were expecting, or that they needed. The disappointment this caused led to an <a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0308597X0500045X">explosion</a> of what was termed “protest fishing”, where large groups of disgruntled fishers would fish illegally, often out in the open and in front of the public and media to make their case for the recognition of their livelihoods. </p>
<p>Additionally, the end of apartheid meant that South Africa’s borders were opened up. This had an impact on both legal and illegal activities. </p>
<p>The protest fishers needed a market for their catch, which was by definition illegal. This environment created the perfect scenario for foreign interests to step in. One of the biggest markets was China. It quickly became apparent that what this market wanted most –- and was willing to pay highly for –- was abalone. </p>
<p>The lucrative nature of this new industry soon attracted the attention of syndicates in South Africa and abroad. Many protest fishers were co-opted into highly profitable networks of poachers that were intimately tied to established <a href="https://issafrica.s3.amazonaws.com/site/uploads/105.PDF">gangs</a>. </p>
<p>Breaking the cycle of illegal activity is going to be tough, but there are things that the government can do. </p>
<h2>What can be done</h2>
<p>The government needs to curtail the socio-economic conditions that make poaching not only the most lucrative, but often the only option, for employment in impoverished fishing villages. </p>
<p>For example, hotspots such as Gansbaai in the Overberg and Hangberg in Cape Town are characterised by a lack of housing, employment, opportunity and skills-based education. By focusing both on communities’ well being and on good governance, many of the factors that threaten the natural resource sectors would be ameliorated. </p>
<p>Here are additional steps the government must take: </p>
<ul>
<li><p>Root out the corruption at the Department of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries. The department’s leadership has been <a href="https://www.news24.com/SouthAfrica/News/fisheries-department-rotting-from-the-top-20181113">compromised</a> for decades. It’s no wonder that some fishers question the authority of such inefficient management. </p></li>
<li><p>Forensic task teams must be established and authorised to follow the flows of capital into and out of coastal communities, as well as the Marine Living Resources Fund. Community, here, refers to both fishers and Fisheries Branch personnel. </p></li>
<li><p>Bring back the Green Courts. These special courts were regionally based and dealt only with environmental crime. Both the prosecutors and judges had specialised knowledge and the court didn’t need to prioritise between environmental crime and other serious crime such as murder, rape or robbery. When operating, the Green Courts had an <a href="https://www.iol.co.za/news/south-africa/future-of-sas-green-court-in-the-balance-274307">over 80% success rate</a> at convicting. Currently, environmental crimes are often relegated to the bottom of the schedule because they’re not seen as urgent. This has resulted in endless delays in hearing cases of poaching, and under-prosecution of environmental crime. </p></li>
<li><p>The <a href="https://www.nda.agric.za/docs/policy/policysmallscalefishe.pdf">small-scale fisheries policy</a> needs to be realistically assessed for its capacity to uplift communities who’ve been waiting in increasingly desperate anticipation for its implementation since <a href="http://www.plaas.org.za/news/state-small-scale-fisheries-south-africa">2007</a>. It cannot be the only option for long-term upliftment along our coasts. </p></li>
</ul>
<p>Abalone are not charismatic creatures. They’ll never inspire the same national outrage or proliferation of bumper stickers as the rhino. Yet, their value is no less. Fixing the myriad of problems that have spawned this illegal industry won’t be easy. However, by assuming that the Department of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries is capable of addressing the problem on its own, we’re condemning all such efforts to failure. With political will, and coordinated effort between government departments, almost everything is possible.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/106957/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Marieke Norton has previously received funding from the South African National Research Foundation through the Research Chair in Marine Ecology and Fisheries, as well as the SeaChange Fund, also NRF. </span></em></p>Breaking the cycle of illegal abalone poaching in South Africa is going to be tough, but not impossible.Marieke Norton, Lecturer, Course Convenor and PostDoctoral Researcher, University of Cape TownLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1069462018-11-21T13:40:16Z2018-11-21T13:40:16ZStudy sheds light on scourge of "fake" news in Africa<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/246627/original/file-20181121-161615-2me48u.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&amp;q=45&amp;auto=format&amp;w=496&amp;fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Nigerians have the lowest trust in the country&#39;s media, thanks to widespread misinformation. </span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">EPA/Ahmed Jallanzo</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>Concerns about “fake news” have dominated discussions about the relationship between the media and politics in the developed world in recent years. The <a href="https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/1461670X.2018.1492881">extraordinary amount</a> of attention paid in scholarship and in public debates to questions around truth, veracity and deception can be connected to the <a href="https://theconversation.com/the-real-consequences-of-fake-news-81179">role of “fake news”</a> in the 2016 US presidential election, and US President Donald Trump’s use of the term to dismiss his critics.</p>
<p>The term “fake news” itself is <a href="https://publications.parliament.uk/pa/cm201719/cmselect/cmcumeds/1630/163002.htm">controversial</a> because <a href="https://en.unesco.org/news/new-handbook-journalism-education-and-training-published-fight-fake-news-and-disinformation">it’s poorly defined</a>. </p>
<p>The panic created by the spread of misinformation in general has led to introspection by journalists and a reassertion of professional values and standards.</p>
<p>The rise of <a href="https://www.news24.com/SouthAfrica/News/unisa-staffer-who-manufactures-fake-news-could-face-criminal-hate-speech-charges-20181116">false information</a> has complex cultural and social reasons. Until now, though, the phenomenon has been studied mostly as it happens in the US and Europe, with relatively <a href="https://www.bbc.com/news/world-africa-46138284">little attention</a> to the situation in African countries. </p>
<p>This is despite the fact that disinformation on the continent has often taken the form of <a href="https://www.news24.com/Analysis/siqalo-showed-how-social-media-is-reshaping-protest-narratives-20180511">extreme speech </a> inciting violence or has spread racist, misogynous, xenophobic messages, often on mobile phone platforms such as <a href="https://www.enca.com/analysis/sad-truth-about-catzavelos-video">WhatsApp</a>.</p>
<p>To fill the gap in information about “fake news” in sub-Saharan Africa, we conducted an online survey in Kenya, Nigeria and South Africa earlier this year. <a href="http://danimadrid.net/research/2018_icafrica_fakenews.pdf">Our study</a> had three goals: to measure the prevalence of disinformation, to learn who people believe is responsible for stopping fake news, and to understand the relationship between disinformation and media trust.</p>
<p>Our survey, in which 755 people took part, reused questions from <a href="http://www.journalism.org/2016/12/15/many-americans-believe-fake-news-is-sowing-confusion/">another study</a> on the topic conducted in 2016 by the US-based Pew Research Centre. In this way we are able to compare our results with those in the US.</p>
<p>Our findings suggest that African audiences have low levels of trust in the media, experience a high degree of exposure to misinformation, and contribute – often knowingly – to its spread.</p>
<h2>Findings</h2>
<p>There are five takeaways from our study.</p>
<p>First, media consumers in Kenya, Nigeria and South Africa perceive that they are exposed to “fake news” about politics on a fairly regular basis. Almost half of Kenyan respondents said they often encounter news stories about politics that they think are completely made up. More alarmingly, only a small fraction (ranging from 1 to 3%) say they have never come across fabricated news. In the US, that figure is much higher (12%).</p>
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<p>Second, surveyed Africans said they shared “fake news” with a much higher frequency than Americans do: 38% Kenyans, 28% Nigerians and 35% South Africans acknowledged having shared stories which turned out to be made up. In the US only 16% did so. When asked whether they had shared stories that they knew were made up, one-in-five South Africans and one-in-four Kenyans and Nigerians said “yes”.</p>
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<p>Third, the public is seen as bearing the largest responsibility in stopping the spread of misinformation. More than two-thirds of respondents in all three countries said members of the public have a lot or a great deal of responsibility. Next came social media companies and, in last place, the government.</p>
<p>Fourth, we found that Nigeria has the lowest level of overall trust in the media of the three countries. On a scale from 0 to 100, average values were consistently below 50. </p>
<p>Declining levels of media trust are not exclusive to sub-Saharan Africa, but are <a href="https://cms.edelman.com/sites/default/files/2018-01/2018%20Edelman%20Trust%20Barometer%20Global%20Report.pdf">a trend across the globe</a>. </p>
<p>By type of news organisation, Nigerian and Kenyan audiences said they trust international media more than any other. In South Africa, local media are the most trusted. A consistent pattern across countries is the lowest degree of trust in social media.</p>
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<p>Fifth, we found that those respondents who believe they are exposed to “fake news” more regularly, have lower levels of trust in the media. Because misinformation and disinformation appear to be contributing to the erosion of media trust, it is important that strategies to address the fake news phenomenon look beyond media literacy. </p>
<h2>Rebuilding trust in media</h2>
<p>Educating audiences about the dangers of fake news is not enough. Media literacy should form part of a larger, multi-pronged approach to restore trust in the media. The findings suggest that media organisations would have to work hard at rebuilding relationships with audiences.</p>
<p>Our data comes with some limitations. While we tried to sample different segments of society, because data was collected online, it is more likely to represent the point of view of urban middle classes, than those living in rural areas or with lower income levels – or both. </p>
<p>The results of this study, which is the first to explore misinformation and disinformation in multiple African countries, provide some initial evidence that can be used in designing strategies to limit the spread of fake news, and to mitigate the declining trust in the media.</p>
<p>In sub-Saharan Africa, mainstream media have long struggled to gain their independence and freedom. State control, either through ownership or suppression, over media remains strong. The high levels of perceived exposure to misinformation and disinformation, if left unaddressed, could further undermine the precarious foothold of independent media on the continent.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/106946/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Funding for this survey came from the National Research Foundation (Grant number 93493) and the University of Cape Town Research Committee.</span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Dani Madrid-Morales does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Disinformation in Africa often takes the form of extreme speech inciting violence and spreading racist, misogynous, xenophobic messages.Herman Wasserman, Professor of Media Studies and Director of the Centre for Film and Media Studies, University of Cape TownDani Madrid-Morales, Assistant Professor in Journalism at the Jack J. Valenti School of Communication, University of HoustonLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1072012018-11-20T13:40:11Z2018-11-20T13:40:11ZSilent images speak through time in one family's story of Poland under the Nazis<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/246460/original/file-20181120-161624-8wzrnr.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&amp;q=45&amp;auto=format&amp;w=496&amp;fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">One of the photographs from Terry Kurgan&#39;s book. </span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Supplied/Jasek Kurgan</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>The first photograph in Terry Kurgan’s <a href="http://fourthwallbooks.com/product/everyone-is-present/">Everyone is Present</a> shows what appears to be a mid-20th century idyllic scene of a young family at a spa in southern Poland. </p>
<p>It’s a scene that puts one in mind of the reverie in old photographs described by French theorist Roland Barthes in <a href="https://monoskop.org/images/c/c5/Barthes_Roland_Camera_Lucida_Reflections_on_Photography.pdf">Camera Lucida</a> and the nostalgic fragments used so evocatively by the Anglo-German novelist W.G Sebald in <a href="https://www.publishersweekly.com/978-0-375-50483-9">Austerlitz</a> and elsewhere. </p>
<p>But Kurgan, the Johannesburg-based artist, writer and curator, is more forceful in her efforts to wrest meaning from this and other images. She “longs to be able to sit inside this photograph”, as she puts it, to work actively on its subject. She juxtaposes this image with others from the album she inherited from her grandfather, Jasek, to include the rest of the extended family and something of their complicated histories.</p>
<p>And she correlates the album with correspondence with family members and extracts from Jasek’s diary. That woman in the photograph is Jasek’s wife, Tusia, Kurgan’s grandmother. The child is Kurgan’s mother and the man reclining on the deck chair is Doctor Lax, who at that time was Tusia’s lover.</p>
<p>This photograph, she discovers, must have been taken in the summer of 1939, as Kurgan writes, “on the eve of one of the greatest atrocities of the twentieth century”. </p>
<p>In other photographs taken at the spa, people are shown reading newspapers that were likely reporting the threat from Nazi Germany. But there appears to be no reaction to this impending catastrophe. It’s the silence of these images on such matters that drives Kurgan to devise forceful new techniques to unlock their meaning.</p>
<p>She scans the photographs and scrutinises them on her computer screen: clothing, expressions, gestures all take on new significance as their detail is revealed. Objects or, as Kurgan calls them, “stuff”, are discovered and identified in the shadows and revealed as the repositories of intensely personal histories: what happened to the furniture when the apartment was abandoned? What happened to the cat? Did anybody water the flowers? </p>
<h2>Connectedness, strife and betrayal</h2>
<p>In another bid to get closer to her subject, Kurgan Googles the spa depicted in these early images. It is now trading on the days of its former glory, typified in the furniture and other objects shown in Jasek’s photographs.</p>
<p>The photograph that underpins the second section of the book on the family’s flight from Poland as the Nazis invaded – and were welcomed by a large section of the local population – shows the street below the family’s apartment in the town of Bielsko. It is deserted except for two unknown men who appear to react to Jasek at the window. </p>
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<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Locals welcome Nazis as they invade Poland.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Supplied</span></span>
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</figure>
<p>Kurgan uses Google Street View to determine that the neighbourhood has changed very little over the past 70 years. But while Google allowed Kurgan an astonishing proximity to this distant place, it’s the random connection with the two men on the street in Jasek’s photograph that she ultimately finds to be more meaningful and real. She writes:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>As social beings, we want to matter, to be noticed, to connect.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>In a similar bid for connection, Kurgan regularly elides time when she wants to communicate the horror of the <a href="https://theconversation.com/world-politics-explainer-the-holocaust-100657">Holocaust</a>, the Polish population’s complicity in this history, and even the lasting influence of previous generations of one’s own family. </p>
<p>She reacts to Jasek’s account of his arrival at <a href="https://encyclopedia.ushmm.org/content/en/article/auschwitz">Auschwitz</a> – the concentration camp at which more than 1.1 million people were killed during the Holocaust – while it was still an ordinary Polish market town:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>This short sentence plummets through the page, through my desk, through this grey concrete floor, and through the deep red Johannesburg earth. </p>
</blockquote>
<p>And, on Jasek’s photograph of Roza, formidable mother of his perennially flirtatious wife: “She rebuffs him and ourselves in that split-second moment, and forever, as we gaze at her across more than seventy-five years. Now.”</p>
<p>Kurgan weaves major themes of modern Jewish history around Jasek’s account, in the diary and the photographs, of the family’s perilous flight from Poland via Romania, Turkey, Syria, Iraq, India and Kenya to Cape Town. </p>
<p>She notes repeatedly the different forms of betrayal perpetrated on Eastern Europe’s Jews by the people they had lived among for generations, when endemic anti-Semitism erupted on the back of the Nazi invasions, whether through direct assault, complicity or simply looting. Again, these are the histories of “stuff”. </p>
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<p>For the affluent, their flight was not quite comparable to the current waves of migration moving, as Kurgan notes, in the opposite direction into Europe. But the experience of prejudiced bureaucracy, arbitrary closing of borders and abrupt implementation of quotas must have been just as humiliating. </p>
<p>Jasek’s photographs seemingly ignore these awful realities. They focus for the most part on family life with its own versions of strife and betrayal. Indeed, by all accounts, it was impossible for those caught up in it to make sense of this maelstrom. </p>
<h2>History is now</h2>
<p>In the end, Kurgan herself visited Poland: both the sites of her personal family history and those monuments of evil, the death camps. </p>
<p>Noticing her own reflection in a mirror as she tries with her camera to capture “a molecule of air they might have breathed”, she accepts the impossibility of this “very particular kind of retrieval”. </p>
<p>But that, of course, is the point. History is as much about the questions we ask as the answers it provides. In this book – by turns lyrical, angry, frustrated and forgiving – time collapses. The photographic present joins the past to the present. Everyone is present. Now.</p>
<p><a href="http://fourthwallbooks.com/">Fourthwall’s</a> production of the book, the quality of its images and the sensitivity of its design provide an excellent vehicle for both the strength and the delicacy of Kurgan’s essay.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/107201/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Michael Godby receives funding from the National Research Foundation and the University of Cape Town Research Fund.</span></em></p>In Terry Kurgan’s book family history, however tortuous, is subsumed into a greater history of the greatest atrocity.Michael Godby, Emeritus Professor, University of Cape TownLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1071992018-11-20T09:05:12Z2018-11-20T09:05:12ZPolicies in South Africa must stop ignoring families' daily realities<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/246184/original/file-20181119-76144-nq5imx.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&amp;q=45&amp;auto=format&amp;w=496&amp;fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">South Africa has one of the lowest rates of both parents living with their children in the world.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Shutterstock</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>What is “a family”? In South African law, the answer – or rather, <em>answers</em> – are broad. For example, it’s not considered unusual or unacceptable for children to move between kin and to be raised at different stages by grandparents, parents and other relatives. Kinship care is a widespread and customary practice in South Africa, as it is elsewhere in southern Africa. </p>
<p>The reason for this is partly cultural and partly historical. The apartheid system literally <a href="https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/pdf/10.1111/j.1467-7660.2011.01715.x">capitalised</a> on the role of extended family, particularly women. It forcibly fragmented families and separated children from parents.</p>
<p>The result of this can be seen in international comparisons from the <a href="https://worldfamilymap.ifstudies.org/2017/files/WFM-2017-FullReport.pdf">World Family Map</a>: according to this report, South Africa has one of the lowest rates of parent co-residence with children in the world. Over 12 million of the country’s 19 million children don’t live with their fathers. Four million don’t live with either of their biological parents.</p>
<p>Across the world, families are changing: marriage rates <a href="https://worldfamilymap.ifstudies.org/2017/files/WFM-2017-FullReport.pdf">are falling</a>; single parenting is <a href="https://worldfamilymap.ifstudies.org/2017/files/WFM-2017-FullReport.pdf">on the rise</a>. In some ways South Africa follows this trend. But it differs in the case of parental absence and the fact that most children’s parents don’t live together.</p>
<p>Apartheid imposed legislation to fracture families. Its <a href="https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/pdf/10.1111/j.1467-7660.2011.01715.x">policies</a> saw many men leave their families to work in mines or cities, and to live in single-sex hostels away from their wives and children. Forced removals and a lack of suitable family accommodation in cities presented huge obstacles to family life. Many of these obstacles persist today. The country’s policies don’t, by and large, address them meaningfully.</p>
<p>The diversity of families is one of the important underlying themes of the <a href="http://www.ci.uct.ac.za/ci/child-gauge/2018">South African Child Gauge 2018</a>, launched on November 20 to coincide with World Children’s Day.</p>
<p>The Child Gauge describes childcare as one of many, often competing, family strategies. It recommends that policies and services should be more sensitive to the realities of South African family dynamics.</p>
<h2>Policies ignore reality</h2>
<p>One of the hangovers from apartheid is the entrenched idea of the nuclear family – heterosexual mother and father living together with their children – as “ideal”. This notion has remained remarkably persistent; its <a href="https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/0376835X.2017.1318700?journalCode=cdsa20">privileged status</a> is sometimes implicit in policies and in the attitudes of those who implement policy.</p>
<p>The <a href="http://www.dsd.gov.za/index.php?option=com_docman&amp;amp;task=cat_view&amp;amp;gid=33&amp;amp;Itemid=39">White Paper on Families</a> consciously departs from assumptions about nuclear families as a normative model. It acknowledges the diversity of family forms and living arrangements.</p>
<p>Yet much of its content suggests an underlying vision of the ideal family as a stable unit built on the foundation of marital union and biological parents living together with their children.</p>
<p>This ignores global and South African realities. Marriage rates <a href="https://worldfamilymap.ifstudies.org/2017/files/WFM-2017-FullReport.pdf">are declining </a> across the world. In South Africa, they have been dropping since the 1960s.</p>
<p>The laws and systems for birth registration are oriented to nuclear arrangements. This makes it difficult for unmarried fathers and grandparents to register children in their care. An astonishing <a href="http://www.statssa.gov.za/publications/P0305/Recorded_Live_Births_2017.pdf">60% of children</a> don’t have their father’s name on their birth certificate. That can have real consequences: it’s difficult to claim maintenance, and if the child’s father dies it’s difficult to prove orphan status and claim the associated benefits and protections.</p>
<p>And while <a href="http://www.justice.gov.za/legislation/acts/2005-038%20childrensact.pdf">the law</a> states that children have a right to family care and grandparents have a duty of care, some of its policies undermine this. The state places orphaned children who already live with family members (mostly grandparents) in foster care with their family. This formalises an existing arrangement, but introduces an enormous amount of paperwork and red tape.</p>
<p>The foster care system is resource-intensive. It requires investigations and reports by social workers, formal placement by the courts and regular reviews. It’s meant to be a temporary arrangement for children who are removed from their families because of abuse or neglect.</p>
<p>By insisting that orphaned children living with grandparents should be monitored by social workers, the state seems to regard extended families with suspicion. This is an inappropriate use of resources given that extended families care for much larger numbers of children whose parents live elsewhere, and are not subjected to the same scrutiny. It has also reduced the state’s <a href="http://www.ci.uct.ac.za/sites/default/files/image_tool/images/367/Child_Gauge/2006/Child_Gauge_2016-social_assistance_for_orphaned.pdf">capacity</a> to protect children who are abused. </p>
<p>Such policies suggest that the state doesn’t realise kinship care isn’t always a choice. It may sometimes be a necessity as families strategise to maintain multiple households, to secure adequate housing at migration destinations, to further the education of their members and to find work and provide income.</p>
<h2>Addressing the issues</h2>
<p>What can be done to improve this situation?</p>
<p>First, demand-driven responsive services need to be strengthened so that families can rely on an efficient response when they need urgent assistance. All services should be delivered in a way that enables equitable access for families who need them, irrespective of their structure or household form.</p>
<p>The <a href="https://www.google.com/url?sa=t&amp;rct=j&amp;q=&amp;esrc=s&amp;source=web&amp;cd=1&amp;ved=2ahUKEwi4j5iUzuDeAhVdFMAKHQOdCsQQFjAAegQICRAC&amp;url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.sacssp.co.za%2FNDSD_CCPP_19_DECEMBER.docx&amp;usg=AOvVaw0bYUw3IvHSZZzEOoXiQKzM">Draft Care and Protection Policy</a>, published for comment in 2018, proposes that for children living with kin whose parents live elsewhere, the kinship carer and parent must formalise the arrangement by concluding a “parenting rights and responsibilities” agreement. </p>
<p>Rather than trying to regulate families, the current state structures should support families to achieve their desired living arrangements and childcare choices. It needs to address the structural constraints by providing services and infrastructure – like adequate housing, safer environments and quality childcare facilities – that make it possible for children and parents to live together if they wish.</p>
<p>It is only in this way that the Constitution’s progressive and inclusive vision will be fulfilled.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/107199/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Katharine Hall has received funding from the National Research Foundation. </span></em></p>The diversity of families is one of the important underlying themes of the South African Child Gauge 2018.Katharine Hall, Senior researcher, University of Cape TownLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1070492018-11-18T08:56:44Z2018-11-18T08:56:44ZThere's a new way to "grow" bio-bricks using human urine. Here's how it works.<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/245771/original/file-20181115-194488-1a8futa.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&amp;q=45&amp;auto=format&amp;w=496&amp;fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Thanks to a novel process, human urine can be turned into bio-bricks.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Robyn Walker</span></span></figcaption></figure><p><em>Recently, researchers from the University of Cape Town in South Africa have <a href="https://www.news.uct.ac.za/article/-2018-10-24-world-first-bio-bricks-from-urine">“grown” a bio-brick</a> using bacteria and urea found in human urine. The Conversation Africa’s Natasha Joseph asked Dyllon Randall to explain the research and story behind the bio-bricks.</em></p>
<p><strong>What prompted this project?</strong></p>
<p>Initially, curiosity. Some years ago I read about a US based company called <a href="https://biomason.com/">BioMASON</a> that uses the same process we do to produce bio-bricks, but with synthetic urea rather than urine. I was working in the sanitation field and wondered whether real urine could be used instead. Thanks to a one-year feasibility grant from South Africa’s Water Research Commission in 2017, we were able to test the concept – successfully. </p>
<p><strong>So you’re putting what we usually describe as “waste” to good use?</strong></p>
<p>Yes. <a href="https://scholar.google.co.za/citations?user=hx6LrScAAAAJ&amp;hl=en">My research work</a> focuses on rethinking wastewater as a resource. Some of the things we discard – like urine – can actually be converted into useful resources, as this work has shown. This is important if we’re going to achieve a truly sustainable future because we are running out of natural resources at an unprecedented rate. </p>
<p>It’s also about questioning the status quo and trying to improve processes. </p>
<p>Finally, it’s about using language differently when we describe “waste”. Language is important because it creates subtle paradigm shifts. </p>
<p><strong>Where did you get the urine for this project from? How much does it take to form one bio-brick?</strong></p>
<p>We collected the urine from men working in the New Engineering Building at the University of Cape Town using novel <a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2213343718306043">fertiliser-producing urinals</a>. In future, we plan to collect urine from women, too. </p>
<p>We typically need between 20 and 30 litres of urine to make one bio-brick. This might sound like a lot, but remember that urine is more than 98% water: for the bio-brick making process we are only after carbonate ions and calcium ions which only accounts for about 1% (by mass) of the total urine. </p>
<p><strong>How does the process work?</strong></p>
<p>The bio-brick is made by a process called microbial induced calcium carbonate precipitation.</p>
<p>It’s partly <a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0043135416301348">a biological process</a>, and a key part of the process is making sure the urea doesn’t quickly degrade, which is what usually happens. To do this, we increase the pH of the urine by adding calcium hydroxide (lime). If we didn’t do this, most of the urea would degrade during collection or storage. </p>
<p>This initial process <a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2213343718306043">also produces</a> a solid fertiliser, calcium phosphate. This is removed from the liquid phase by filtration, and we’re left with a solution that’s rich in urea which can be used to make bio-bricks.</p>
<p>Certain bacteria produce an enzyme called urease which acts as a catalyst to breakdown urea into carbonate ions and ammonium ions.</p>
<p>With this in mind, <a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2213343718304251">we decrease</a> the pH of our solution slightly so the bacteria which degrade the urea can survive, and add food for the bacteria along with extra calcium to make the whole process more efficient. </p>
<p>After this the carbonate ions combine with the calcium ions from the urine to form calcium carbonate – that is, a solid is formed. This solid is the cement that glues any lose material together into a shape of your choice – in this case, a bio-brick. This is also a natural process and occurs in many environments from coral reefs to caves. We merely imitate this in our bio-brick mould.</p>
<p><strong>Do the bio-bricks smell of urine?</strong></p>
<p>They’ll initially have a strong smell. This is the smell of ammonia, a pungent gas that is produced as a by-product when the bacteria degrades the urea. </p>
<p>We can recover this ammonia using a separate process and convert it into a nitrogen rich fertiliser. </p>
<p>Importantly, the bio-bricks lose their ammonia smell after drying at room temperature for a day or two and are safe to use and handle thereafter. </p>
<p><strong>What about waste?</strong></p>
<p>This is an integrated three phase process. Phase one produces the first (solid) fertiliser; phase two produces the bio-brick and phase three, which we haven’t tested yet, has the potential to produce a second (liquid or solid) fertiliser. </p>
<p>The entire process would theoretically produce no “waste”. </p>
<p>There’s also room to optimise the process and reduce the amount of urine required to make the bio-bricks.</p>
<p><strong>Will this work at scale?</strong></p>
<p>I think so. BioMASON has shown that this natural process is commercially viable, albeit not with urine. Back in 2016 they were in the process of upgrading their facilities to grow <a href="https://www.inc.com/kevin-j-ryan/best-industries-2016-sustainable-building-materials.html">2500 bricks per day</a>. </p>
<p>We need to work on the integration of the urine collection to the large-scale bio-brick making process though. I’m confident we will be able to do this in the near future.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/107049/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Dyllon Randall receives funding from South Africa&#39;s Water Research Commission (WRC K5/2734/3) for this work.</span></em></p>Some of the things we discard - like urine - can actually be useful resources.Dyllon Garth Randall, Senior Lecturer: Water Quality Engineering, University of Cape TownLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1065462018-11-18T08:52:40Z2018-11-18T08:52:40ZRoad deaths: why matters have only got worse over the past 100 years<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/244290/original/file-20181107-74757-1i2kgl.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&amp;q=45&amp;auto=format&amp;w=496&amp;fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Road crashes and deaths are a grim daily reality all over the world.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Bachtub Dmitrii/Shutterstock</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>In the early days of motoring in the US, transport historian <a href="https://mitpress.mit.edu/books/fighting-traffic">Peter Norton</a> tells us, people were angry. In the four years following the end of the First World War, more Americans were killed on roads than had died on the battlefields in France. Monuments were erected to crash victims in Baltimore and Pittsburgh. Detroit tolled bells of mourning and remembrance. In New York a safety march on thousands included bereaved mothers who dedicated a monument there. </p>
<p>Such widespread public anger is unlikely 100 years on even though the world’s roads are still deadly. Globally, <a href="http://www.who.int/violence_injury_prevention/publications/road_traffic/Media_brief_all_factsheets_web_rev_nov_2017.pdf?ua=1">more lives are lost to road deaths</a> than to malaria or HIV/AIDS. Each year, <a href="http://www.who.int/violence_injury_prevention/publications/road_traffic/Media_brief_all_factsheets_web_rev_nov_2017.pdf?ua=1">more than 1.2 million</a> people die in road crashes. In reality, the figure could be larger: road crash data is known to be regularly under-reported. </p>
<p>It’s not just about lives lost. People who don’t die in crashes may still be badly injured or permanently maimed. Globally, <a href="http://www.who.int/news-room/fact-sheets/detail/road-traffic-injuries">road traffic crashes cost most countries 3% of their gross domestic product</a>. The World Day of Remembrance for Road Traffic Victims on Sunday 18 November is a reminder of the human tragedies behind the data.</p>
<p>The risk of a road traffic death <a href="http://www.who.int/violence_injury_prevention/road_safety_status/2015/Section_1_GSRRS2015.pdf?ua=1">are highest in the African region</a>, at 26.6 deaths per 100 000 people. The lowest risk is found <a href="http://www.who.int/violence_injury_prevention/road_safety_status/2015/Section_1_GSRRS2015.pdf?ua=1">in Europe</a>, with 9.3 deaths per 100 000.</p>
<p>Why is road death and injury still so prolific? Enough research has been done, verified and compiled to show which policies, regulations and technologies can radically reduce road deaths and injuries. The World Health Organisation has produced <a href="http://www.who.int/violence_injury_prevention/publications/road_traffic/en/">multiple guidelines </a> that set out how nations can make their roads safer. </p>
<p>Some identify <a href="https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3483956/pdf/AJPH.2011.300563.pdf">a lack of “political will</a>as a key factor in road safety failures. But generalising about "political will”, while understandable, also reinforces an unhelpful categorisation. It contains an assumption that politics is separate from technical road safety and road engineering work. That somehow professionals, governments, businesses and civil society working on road safety operate in a depoliticised, “technical” realm.</p>
<p>Transport scholars have shown, in various cases studies and analyses, how the political and technical work hand in hand. Biases favouring one group are inherent in transport planning and engineering. Early funding allocations in the US were skewed towards highways prompted <a href="https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/009614429902500305">in part</a> by the less than robust use of statistics. And seemingly independent road professional bodies have <a href="https://mitpress.mit.edu/books/fighting-traffic">been influenced</a> by corporate interests. </p>
<p>In short, road engineering, planning and use is not divorced from broader politics. </p>
<h2>Lobbies and interests</h2>
<p>Historical work like Norton’s about the dawn of motoring in the US reveals some of the contours of power at play. It shows who or what was able to influence roads policy and engineering norms at the beginning of motoring. <a href="https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1191/030913201682688922">Trevor Barnes</a> points out that such norms put in place at the beginning of a discipline’s development have a particularly strong influence and are difficult to displace. </p>
<p>In the case of public road development, businesses lobbied to protect and promote their interests. In particular, Norton exposes the role that oil and motor industries played in propagating a very particular style of managing and engineering roads. Regarding road safety, the powerful “motordom” lobby worked to quieten concerns about the relationship between vehicle speeds and road injuries. </p>
<p>The link between vehicle speeds and road death and injury is now widely accepted and <a href="https://www.annualreviews.org/doi/full/10.1146/annurev.publhealth.27.021405.102225#_i4">corroborated by research</a>) but speed remains a poorly understood public health risk, <a href="https://injuryprevention.bmj.com/content/7/3/176">despite strong warnings</a>. </p>
<p>Now, 100 years on from the first days of motoring, can we still attribute the generally parlous state of road safety in many countries to such “motordom” interests wedded to high vehicle speeds and increasing motorisation in business interests? To some extent, we can. </p>
<h2>The politics of roads</h2>
<p>Present day engineering practices can be traced back to road engineering norms established in the early part of the last century. The attribution of responsibility to the “reckless” pedestrian rather than to the motorist who is driving the vehicle that’s capable of causing harm can also be traced back to these earliest days of motoring. </p>
<p>Historical and sociological research work on planning and engineering thus queries the idea of roads and traffic as objective, de-politicised realms of practice. Yet, the work of road safety continues for the most part to be divorced from thinking about the broader political interests that are at play in the business of roads and traffic. </p>
<p>Political analyses of road safety are <a href="https://www.odi.org/sites/odi.org.uk/files/resource-documents/11401.pdf">in their infancy</a>. Much work is still required to understand the politics of roads and road-making. But deeper interrogations of the forces holding the status quo in place are also needed. </p>
<p>Development scholar and author Wolfgang Sachs, as an example, <a href="https://www.ucpress.edu/book/9780520068780/for-love-of-the-automobile">writes eloquently</a> of the car as an object of desire; the love for speed is central to its popularity. The car, he argues, promises humans a means to overcome their existential angst at slowness of life. </p>
<p>Peter Sloterdijk, a philosopher and cultural theorist, <a href="https://www.berghahnjournals.com/view/journals/transfers/1/1/trans010102.xml?">points to</a> our collective “sacrifice” of 3600 children killed in road crashes each year in the name of modernity. He suggests that people’s yearning for relief from the discomforts of being human goes some way to explaining the thirst for automobility. </p>
<p>To accelerate change we need more broad conceptions like these. They offer tantalising possibilities for improved thinking – and acting – for road safety.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/106546/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>During June-August 2018 Lisa Kane worked with Open Streets Cape Town and Childsafe on a project which brought attention to the issue of child pedestrian road safety in South Africa. </span></em></p>Road traffic injuries are one of the leading causes of death worldwide.Lisa Kane, Honorary Research Associate, University of Cape TownLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1066482018-11-14T13:57:11Z2018-11-14T13:57:11ZHow scavengers can help forensic scientists identify human corpses<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/245022/original/file-20181112-83573-jo8xm1.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&amp;q=45&amp;auto=format&amp;w=496&amp;fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Yellow mongoose probably don&#39;t come to mind when thinking of scavengers - but they have been found to scavenge and scatter body parts.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Jonathan Pledger/Shutterstock</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>When the police recover skeletonised, burnt or heavily decomposed bodies, they need forensic experts to make sense of what they’ve found. One important question in such cases is: when did the person die?</p>
<p>Forensic taphonomists study what happens to human remains after death. They try to provide answers by analysing the state of decomposition and the context in which the remains were found. By doing this, they can establish an approximate <a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/topics/medicine-and-dentistry/post-mortem-interval">post-mortem interval</a> – the time that’s passed since someone died. </p>
<p>This is important for several reasons. First, it reduces the potential pool of individuals the remains could belong to, which increases the chances of identification. Post-mortem interval can also be used to exclude possible perpetrators or to corroborate evidence in investigations.</p>
<p>Sometimes, there’s another reason that bodies are difficult to identify or aren’t found in one piece: they’ve been scavenged. The usual suspects that come to mind when talking about scavengers are hyenas, vultures, or jackals. But there are other animals you’d probably be surprised to find on the list: baboons, porcupines, badgers, racoons, opossums, and even deer.</p>
<p>For a long time we haven’t understood what effect this sort of scavenging and scattering has on the rate of decomposition. For instance, does it change the rate or pattern of decay?</p>
<p>We’ve been trying <a href="http://www.anatomybioanth.uct.ac.za/">to fill this research gap</a> at the University of Cape Town. We’ve researched decomposition since 2014, conducting a number of studies that focus on scavenging and scattering in a large swathe of vegetation in the heart of Cape Town.</p>
<p>The results have helped us to understand the role that scavenging plays in calculating post-mortem intervals. They’ve also already been applied to active forensic cases. This sort of cooperation between science and law enforcement can help to get accurate as well as just results.</p>
<h2>Why scavenging matters</h2>
<p>Our projects are conducted at the South African Medical Research Council’s secure research facility in Delft, Cape Town, within an area called the Cape Flats.</p>
<p>Human remains are often recovered from the particular kind of vegetation that grows in and around the facility, and which is common across the Cape Flats. That’s because the surrounding areas are so densely populated; the area’s <a href="https://www.economist.com/middle-east-and-africa/2018/10/04/why-cape-towns-murder-rate-is-rising">struggle with crime</a> and poverty is also well documented.</p>
<p>Existing methods of studying and measuring post-mortem interval in this vegetation have traditionally relied exclusively on the relationship between temperature and decomposition progression. The effect of scavenging is ignored. But, as our work has shown, it shouldn’t be.</p>
<p>For example, we have gained some invaluable insights from tracking the scavenging habits of the Cape grey mongoose. The knowledge we gained from a research project by an honours student was recently applied to a live police case – to astonishing effect.</p>
<p>Max Spies, an honours student, <a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S037907381830344X?via%3Dihub">found</a> that the Cape grey mongoose (<em>Galerella pulverulenta</em>) was the major and possibly only wild vertebrate scavenger of decomposing carcasses remaining in the environment. (Spies was supervised by myself and PhD candidate <a href="http://uct.academia.edu/DevinFinaughty">Devin Finaughty</a>).</p>
<p>To test their scavenging habits, we set up an experiment using three small pig carcasses. One of these was completely caged to prevent scavenging; the other two were placed out in the open. We set up motion-activated infrared camera traps to catch scavengers in the act and to see how they behaved around the carcasses.</p>
<p>Spies visited the site every second day to track the direction and distance that bony elements were moved away from each original deposition site by the scavengers.</p>
<p>We found that the Cape grey mongoose’s daily scavenging activity had a significant effect. Carcasses the scavengers could access decomposed to skeletonisation within 14 days. But the carcass in the cage took more than 93 days.</p>
<p>We <a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0379073818303359?via%3Dihub">also discovered</a> that mongoose target smaller, more manageable elements from larger carcasses and move them under cover to eat them. </p>
<p>The insight from this research opened the door for us to take part in an active police case which resulted in the recovery of a complete body in the area. We were called in to assist after a body was found.</p>
<h2>Practical use</h2>
<p>One of the first things we noticed was that the corpse’s hands were missing. Spoor and scat were found around the remains and along the undergrowth paths. These were positively identified by a South African National Parks tracker as belonging to a yellow mongoose (<em>Cynictis penicillata</em>) –- a species similar to the Cape grey mongoose.</p>
<p>The scat was analysed microscopically for its contents and clothing fibres matching those of the deceased were found. </p>
<p>A small tunnel under the bush was seen heading away from the body. After following the tunnel and removing the bushes to five metres from the body, most of the bones of each hand – along with the individual’s watch – were recovered at the entrance to an underground burrow.</p>
<p>Armed with these details, as well as our estimates of how long the corpse had been there, it was possible for the police to identify the person. </p>
<p>Based on the time the deceased went missing, the rapidity of skeletonisation was surprising. But it could be explained because of our knowledge about the way in which the local scavenger operated. </p>
<p>This knowledge, and our accumulated insights, could be crucial in evidence being gathered for other cases, including criminal investigations.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/106648/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Victoria Gibbon does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Scavengers play an important but often poorly understood role in how fast bodies decompose.Victoria Gibbon, Senior Lecturer in Biological Anthropology, Division of Clinical Anatomy and Biological Anthropology, University of Cape TownLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1067322018-11-13T14:52:58Z2018-11-13T14:52:58ZBook on Steinhoff's demise shows danger of 'big men' business leaders<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/245272/original/file-20181113-194513-10hvmnj.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&amp;q=45&amp;auto=format&amp;w=496&amp;fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Steinhoff CEO Markus Jooste was an excessively dominant, forceful and feared boss. </span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">shutterstock</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>The <a href="https://www.sowetanlive.co.za/business/2017-12-07-steinhoff-share-price-continues-to-fall/">collapse</a> of Steinhoff International, the multi-billion dollar global business group, has been rightly described as the biggest corporate scandal in South African history. </p>
<p>The company’s history, and its subsequent evolution and demise, are skillfully told in a <a href="https://www.amazon.com/Steinhoff-inside-biggest-corporate-crash-ebook/dp/B07FT9KPG7">new book</a> <em>Steinhoff: Inside SA’s Biggest Corporate Crash</em>, by former journalist James-Brent Styan. It is the story of a bold vision and ambition, entrepreneurial grit and guile, continuous innovation, relentless risk-taking, corporate hubris, and friendship betrayals.</p>
<p>The extraordinary way in which Steinhoff grew from being a modest firm with a footprint only in Germany and South Africa to becoming a multinational behemoth straddling sectors such as furniture manufacturing, retail, logistics, consumer finance, building material, wood and vehicles with a global presence, is impressive.</p>
<p>In its pursuit of growth, Steinhoff employed a two-pronged strategy. The first focused on creating a low-cost manufacturing base. This enabled the business to supply products at cheap prices to its target market of lower-to-middle income groups. </p>
<p>The second pillar consisted of an aggressive acquisition of companies. A great deal of the acquisitions took place in European countries such as Germany, Poland and France but also extended to Australia, New Zealand, Britain and the US.</p>
<p>The acquisitions were costly and the conglomerate paid above the market value for the shares. The rapid spate of takeovers saw the group expand to 12 000 stores across the world, employing 130 000 people. Ultimately, Steinhoff became a fully vertically integrated enterprise – it was involved in all the value chain links from sourcing raw materials, to manufacturing and finally to distribution and sale of products.</p>
<h2>Shaky foundations</h2>
<p>At the pinnacle of its success, the international business giant became the darling of investors, asset managers, analysts and financial journalists. They all feted its expansion into new ventures and countries. But, as it later turned out, its success was built on shaky foundations epitomised by unfettered greed as well as dodgy and unethical practices, including alleged accounting irregularities, tax evasion and lax corporate standards.</p>
<p>The day before the Steinhoff group’s precipitous crash, the corporation was worth R193bn. On the following day, its market value was decimated by a staggering R117bn. Among the victims of the financial carnage were financial South African services giants Coronation Fund, Foord Asset Management, Sanlam, Investec, Liberty, Old Mutual, Allan Gray, Discovery and the Nedgroup. </p>
<p>The biggest losers were key investor and Pepkor chairman Christo Wiese (R37bn) and the Public Investment Corporation (R14bn), which manages the Government Employees Pension Fund. Overnight, millions of South Africans had lost billions of rands in pension funds.</p>
<p>The book encompasses a diverse range of themes and proffers a number important business lessons. Some bear mentioning.</p>
<h2>Lessons</h2>
<p>The case of Markus Jooste, then Steinhoff CEO, shows that the cult of personality and “Big Man” syndrome is as ubiquitous in the corporate world as it is in politics. He comes across as an excessively dominant, forceful and feared boss. He brooks no dissent and only those subordinates who obsequiously defer to him benefit from his extensive patronage. To the detriment of the business, his leadership style fostered an institutional culture of uncritical subservience and self-censorship. </p>
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<p>A recurring question in the book is: Despite occasional red flags how could the analysts, investors, asset managers, directors and the Johannesburg Securities Exchange have been oblivious to the wrongdoing at Steinhoff? </p>
<p>Part of the problem was the dominant view that the company could never go wrong. As long as the share price kept rising, and the good news kept flowing, there was nothing to worry about. There were, of course, some skeptical and dissenting voices, but they were too few to upend the prevailing consensus. </p>
<p>The crucial lesson here is that the share price is not the only indicator of corporate performance; fundamental governance issues are equally, if not more, important.</p>
<p>As Steinhoff’s global expansion accelerated, its business model and structure became more complicated. Some market analysts have argued that the firm’s increasingly complex structure, coupled with the group’s continual acquisitions, made it nearly impossible to analyse its books and to do year-on-year comparisons.</p>
<p>Even so, there was a belief that as long as strong, charismatic and venerated business personalities such as Jooste and Wiese, Steinhoff’s chairman at the time, were at the helm the business was in safe hands. This trust in Jooste and Wiese, as well as in management and directors, proved to be misplaced. As Warren Buffett has wisely <a href="https://www.gurufocus.com/news/127046/rule-number-one-dont-invest-in-something-you-dont-understand-">counselled</a>, never invest in something you don’t trust.</p>
<p>The Steinhoff board of directors, long viewed as one of the strongest and most dependable, has come under fierce criticism for failing to exercise its fiduciary duty. Describing the board, one fund manager stated that it was
“ineffective, not independent and was overwhelmed by Jooste’s strong personality”. </p>
<p>Criticism has also been directed at Deloitte, the firm that audited the company’s statements for 20 years, for disregarding the irregularities and the danger signs preceding the crash. It is this milieu that prompted an analyst to describe what happened at Steinhoff in the book as follows:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>It’s a buddy-buddy system, a bunch of people who know each other and have worked together for years. It strips them of their capacity to question things that don’t make sense. </p>
</blockquote>
<h2>Up there with the worst</h2>
<p>Styan must be commended for producing a cogently written and thoroughly researched book. In terms of its drama and catastrophic impact, the Steinhoff scandal is up there with the likes of Enron, Worldcom, Tyco, Freddie Mac, Bernie Madoff and other world infamous episodes of business malfeasance. As such, the book provides valuable insights and lessons that are universally applicable and comparable. It must be made compulsory reading in corporate boardrooms and business schools.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/106732/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Mills Soko does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Steinhoff was the darling of investors, asset managers, analysts and financial journalists. But its success was built on shaky foundations.Mills Soko, Associate Professor, Graduate School of Business, University of Cape TownLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/981062018-11-13T14:38:09Z2018-11-13T14:38:09ZWhy giving South Africans title deeds isn't the panacea for land reform<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/223368/original/file-20180615-85845-1yzicf7.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&amp;q=45&amp;auto=format&amp;w=496&amp;fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">
</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">DSC</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>The land reform debate in South Africa has become increasingly polarised since Parliament resolved to consider <a href="https://www.sanews.gov.za/south-africa/national-enquiry-fast-track-land-reform">amending</a> the country’s Constitution to allow for the expropriation of land without compensation.</p>
<p>But the <a href="https://www.news24.com/SouthAfrica/News/parliament-concerned-about-slow-pace-of-land-reform-20170519">slow pace</a> of <a href="http://ccs.ukzn.ac.za/files/LandreforminSouthAfrica.pdf">land reform</a> – a process that aims to address the dispossession of the previously oppressed black majority – will not be solved by amending the Constitution. That’s because the main problems with the country’s land reform programme have nothing to do with it.</p>
<p>The main problem lies with the government’s thinking behind land reform. It’s rooted in a Western, <a href="http://www.plaas.org.za/plaas-publication/ruralstatusrep-bk3-weinberg">colonial</a> mindset that’s totally out of step with how many would-be beneficiaries understand land.</p>
<p>The problem stems from the fact that indigenous systems of land ownership are not the same as the absolute ownership approach preferred by the West. Nor are they what early colonialists assumed when they adopted a <a href="http://www.ee.co.za/article/addressing-shortcomings-land-tenure-reform-customary-land-rights.html">communal paradigm</a>, assuming that land was collectively owned by indigenous communities. This was not the case. Some land was for communal use (particularly grazing and some agricultural land), but families and individuals held exclusive use rights over other areas such as homesteads.</p>
<p>The legacy of this is devastating. Adherence to a communal paradigm strips people of the ability to hold land rights individually. This is unconstitutional. Yet the paradigm persists: we can see it in, for example, the <a href="http://www.customcontested.co.za/laws-and-policies/communal-land-rights-act-clara/">communal land rights Act</a>, and the <a href="http://www.customcontested.co.za/wp-content/uploads/2013/11/06-AUG-2013-Communal-Land-Tenure-Policy-v2.pdf">communal land tenure policy</a>.</p>
<p>South Africa needs to move away from the communal paradigm that entrenches colonial and apartheid-era thinking, and move towards an approach that’s better aligned to living norms and traditions.</p>
<p>Rejecting the communal paradigm, I prefer to refer to <a href="http://www.land-links.org/issue-brief/the-future-of-customary-tenure/">customary land tenure</a> to describe how indigenous communities manage their land. Customary tenure systems are regulated by traditional norms and practices, within which land rights are socially embedded. They are dynamic, multi-layered and responsive to the needs of the community. As a result, and contrary to common perception, they <em>can</em> offer secure tenure.</p>
<p><a href="https://hsf.org.za/publications/focus/focus-70-on-focus/focus-70-oct-g-pienaar.pdf">What is required</a> is legislation to recognise and protect them, and for such legislation to be properly implemented. This, unfortunately, is not the government’s approach.</p>
<h2>Flawed thinking</h2>
<p>The government sees customary tenure as insecure and an impediment to economic development. In terms of the <a href="http://www.plaas.org.za/sites/default/files/publications-pdf/Landreform.pdf">Green Paper on Land Reform</a>, land in South Africa may only be owned by a <a href="http://www.plaas.org.za/plaas-publication/ruralstatusrep-bk3-weinberg">“small elite”</a>. The <a href="http://www.ruraldevelopment.gov.za/phocadownload/Policies/state_land_lease_and_disposal_policy_25july2013.pdf">State Land Lease and Disposal Policy</a> (which does not provide for ownership, but allows beneficiaries of land redistribution to lease land from the State), has been criticised as showing the government’s lack of faith in <a href="http://www.plaas.org.za/blog/whats-wrong-governments-state-land-lease-disposal-policy-and-how-can-it-be-remedied">poor black farmers</a>. And the <a href="http://www.customcontested.co.za/wp-content/uploads/2013/11/06-AUG-2013-Communal-Land-Tenure-Policy-v2.pdf">Communal Land Tenure Policy</a> seeks to transfer ownership of customary land to tribal authorities.
This <a href="http://www.plaas.org.za/blog/communal-land-tenure-policy-state-land-grabbing-and-coercive-use-land-create-voting-blocks">deprives land rights-holders</a> of their land rights, rendering them subjects of the chief instead of citizens of the country. Such an approach is unequivocally unconstitutional.</p>
<p>Globally, individual title to land (ownership) is seen as the ultimate goal because it allows people to access the capital value of their land and promotes investment. This view is supported by both the African National Congress and the main opposition party, the <a href="https://www.da.org.za/2018/03/da-has-proud-record-on-land-reform-and-we-reject-land-expropriation-without-compensation/">Democratic Alliance</a>. </p>
<p>Titling is seen as a sure way to lift people out of poverty. But the link between giving people title deeds to their land and poverty alleviation in sub-Saharan Africa is <a href="https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1111/j.1467-7660.1996.tb00578.x">contested</a>.</p>
<h2>Ownership</h2>
<p>Titling, or the formalisation approach is <a href="http://www.ee.co.za/article/land-rights-people-want.html">supported</a> by some people, while others argue <a href="http://theconversation.com/why-title-deeds-arent-the-solution-to-south-africas-land-tenure-problem-82098?utm_medium=email&amp;utm_campaign=Latest%20from%20The%20Conversation%20for%20August%2014%202017%20-%2080696483&amp;utm_content=Latest%20from%20The%20Conversat">against</a> it. Those who oppose it warn that it could bring about greater insecurity of land tenure, especially for women and other vulnerable groups. </p>
<p>From <a href="http://www.ee.co.za/article/addressing-shortcomings-land-tenure-reform-customary-land-rights.html">interviews I conducted</a> with customary land rights-holders in the Eastern Cape, the biggest fears around formalisation were:</p>
<ul>
<li><p>Having title to land is expensive because you are immediately liable for rates and taxes, and banks may seize your property should you default on loan repayments.</p></li>
<li><p>For the poor and vulnerable, especially, this may lead to a decrease in tenure security and push them further into poverty.</p></li>
<li><p>Titling also leads to a loss of tribal identity because individuals may choose to sell their lands to outsiders who do not identify with the traditions and customs of the area.</p></li>
</ul>
<p>Government views formalisation through registration and title as a <a href="https://www.parliament.gov.za/storage/app/media/Pages/2017/october/High_Level_Panel/Commissioned_Report_land/Commissioned_Report_on_Spatial_Inequality.pdf">quick fix “silver bullet” solution</a>, but it’s beset with “intractable problems and conflicts”. </p>
<p><a href="http://reference.sabinet.co.za/sa_epublication_article/ju_jur_2011_a9">In some cases</a>, beneficiaries of land titling programmes revert to customary practices. This is partly because they don’t identify with government’s imposed system of ownership.</p>
<h2>Customary tenure systems</h2>
<p>A conservative approach is to recognise customary tenure systems that are socially embedded and that may offer more security than ownership through titling. Such recognition represents a shift away from the <a href="http://www.econ3x3.org/article/land-and-property-rights-title-deeds-usual-won%E2%80%99t-work">supremacy of ownership</a> that views individual title as the be all and end all. </p>
<p>In South Africa, both the <a href="https://www.gov.za/tn/documents/interim-protection-informal-land-rights-act">Interim Protection of Informal Land Rights Act</a> and the former <a href="http://saflii.org/za/legis/num_act/lrarlaa1999423.pdf">Land Rights Bill of 1999</a> adopted a conservative approach. Both documents recognised existing land rights and sought to protect and further strengthen them. But Interim Protection of Informal Land Rights Act is <a href="https://agbiz.co.za/uploads/AgbizNews16/160211_CommunalLandAninkaClaasens.pdf">often overlooked</a>, and the Bill was <a href="https://pmg.org.za/committee-meeting/3436/">scrapped</a>.</p>
<p>Current policies seek to undermine customary land rights-holders, allowing them only to lease land from the state or to have secondary use rights as subjects of traditional authorities. South Africa needs a new approach, one that challenges the supremacy of titling and casts off the shackles of the communal paradigm.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/98106/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Simon Hull is employed by the University of Cape Town. He is a member of the South African Geomatics Institute, the GeoInformation Society of South Africa, and is a professional land surveyor registered with the South African Geomatics Council.</span></em></p>The main reason land reform in South Africa has been lethargic is not the Constitution, but a flawed approach.Simon Hull, Senior lecturer, Division of Geomatics, University of Cape TownLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1062612018-11-08T13:36:26Z2018-11-08T13:36:26ZCrisis proofing South Africa's water security<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/244071/original/file-20181106-74754-phyo6h.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&amp;q=45&amp;auto=format&amp;w=496&amp;fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Reliable water supply is essential for South Africa&#39;s development.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Shutterstock</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>South Africa is often referred to as the <a href="http://www.wwf.org.za/?21562/Waste2Wealth-The-fluid-story-of-your-water">30th driest country</a> in the world, a claim that’s based on its <a href="http://www.scielo.org.za/scielo.php?script=sci_arttext&amp;pid=S1816-79502012000300008">average annual rainfall</a> of 500mm compared to the world average of 860mm. National rainfall averages have a purpose. They do, however, have limited value where regional and local rainfall distribution varies considerably and when water security is threatened by recurring droughts, or when water use is poorly regulated and managed. Average rainfall data is meaningless when water demand exceeds supply. </p>
<p>This is true in South Africa. Since 2013 nearly every region in South Africa has experienced some form of drought and water shortages resulting in water <a href="http://www.csag.uct.ac.za/2018/07/23/drought-when-and-where/">restrictions</a> in urban areas and in the agriculture sector. </p>
<p>Currently, the metro cities of <a href="http://www.capetown.gov.za/Family%20and%20home/residential-utility-services/residential-water-and-sanitation-services/Residential-water-restrictions-explained">Cape Town</a> and <a href="https://www.enca.com/news/its-getting-hot-out-there-water-restrictions-remain-joburg">Johannesburg</a> have restrictions in place. Cape Town requires its agricultural sector to reduce water use by 60% and its citizens by 45%. Likewise, whole provinces, such as the <a href="http://www.agriec.co.za/blog/posts/strict-water-restrictions-for-eastern-cape-remain-in-effect-in-western-cape">Eastern Cape</a>, large municipalities and numerous smaller towns have various levels of water restrictions in place and in some cases receive only intermittent supplies.</p>
<p>A reliable supply of water at an acceptable quantity and quality that’s not harmful to human health, livelihoods, development and the environment is essential for the future development of South Africa. Yet erratic rainfall and increasing water demand is increasing levels of water stress. </p>
<p>In 2013 a water stress <a href="https://www.wri.org/blog/2015/08/ranking-world-s-most-water-stressed-countries-2040">survey</a> placed South Africa in 65th position out of 180 countries, but by 2040 the water stress index is likely to rise to anything between 40% and 80%.</p>
<p>Crisis proofing South Africa’s water security is imperative, but it’s not clear how this can be attained. There’s no universal agreement on how water security is measured. Typically measurements include water availability, water risk and hazards, water use, access and equity in water, and the effect and frequency of floods and droughts. What’s often missing are ways of measuring adaptation and environmental sustainability that are likely to improve the chances of becoming water secure.</p>
<h2>Hard challenges</h2>
<p>South Africa can’t change the climate systems that influence weather variability and conditions. But it can do a lot to adapt to changing the future where parts of the country will get drier, warmer and the intervals between droughts will be shorter.</p>
<p>South Africa is a water stressed country. Indices show regions of high water demand, particularly in the south-western and eastern parts, and also in north. These regions are likely to become increasingly water stressed because of an over use of surface water followed by drought that will effect social and economic development. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/243854/original/file-20181105-83638-l9aee5.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&amp;q=45&amp;auto=format&amp;w=754&amp;fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/243854/original/file-20181105-83638-l9aee5.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&amp;q=45&amp;auto=format&amp;w=600&amp;h=515&amp;fit=crop&amp;dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/243854/original/file-20181105-83638-l9aee5.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&amp;q=30&amp;auto=format&amp;w=600&amp;h=515&amp;fit=crop&amp;dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/243854/original/file-20181105-83638-l9aee5.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&amp;q=15&amp;auto=format&amp;w=600&amp;h=515&amp;fit=crop&amp;dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/243854/original/file-20181105-83638-l9aee5.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&amp;q=45&amp;auto=format&amp;w=754&amp;h=647&amp;fit=crop&amp;dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/243854/original/file-20181105-83638-l9aee5.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&amp;q=30&amp;auto=format&amp;w=754&amp;h=647&amp;fit=crop&amp;dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/243854/original/file-20181105-83638-l9aee5.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&amp;q=15&amp;auto=format&amp;w=754&amp;h=647&amp;fit=crop&amp;dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">South Africa’s water stress index relative to global scores.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="http://waterriskfilter.panda.org/en/Explore/CountryProfiles#overview/69">World Wide Fund Water Risk Filter</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>By 2035 water demand is expected to exceed supply by 10%. If planned water schemes aren’t carried out the <a href="https://issafrica.s3.amazonaws.com/site/uploads/sar13-2.pdf">Institute for Security Studies</a> estimates that this gap could increase to 21%.</p>
<p>South Africa has a number of specific challenges that make it difficult for achieving water security. These include:</p>
<ul>
<li><p>The geographic position of a country that influences climate and weather systems.</p></li>
<li><p>Rapid population growth and increasing water demand.</p></li>
<li><p>Limited investment in water infrastructure and projects.</p></li>
<li><p>Corruption and mismanagement of water resources resulting in public mistrust and lack of confidence in leadership of state departments.</p></li>
<li><p>Fragile social and institutional capacity which threatens effective governance.</p></li>
</ul>
<h2>Action required</h2>
<p>South Africa needs to do three things as a matter of urgency: </p>
<p>Close the gap on water supply and demand. This is primarily a function of the National Department of Water and Sanitation. Currently, however, the new Minister for Water and Sanitation, Mr Gugile Nkwinti, <a href="https://www.news24.com/SouthAfrica/News/water-dept-is-in-shambles-admits-nkwinti-after-taking-over-from-mokonyane-20180502">has his hands full</a> in fixing the department and attracting experienced personnel to senior vacant posts and new appointees to the National Water Advisory Committee. </p>
<p>Draft an integrated water security strategy that includes components that are measurable to enable progress to be tracked and government to be held accountable. The strategy already exists in a plethora of national policies, regulations and development plans, but the transition to a water secure country must be measurable and capable of improving water-related decisions and plans.</p>
<p>Improve water quality infrastructure. This includes water treatment plants and drainage systems that pollute freshwater systems and storage dams. It’s understandable that the supply of water has taken centre stage, but the general neglect of surface water quality is an issue that can’t be ignored any longer. <a href="http://www.wrc.org.za/Lists/Knowledge%20Hub%20Items/Attachments/12294/ISS_A%20delicate%20balance.pdf">Only a third</a> of South Africa’s rivers are in a good condition while the cost of restoring degraded river systems is increasingly prohibitive.</p>
<p>South Africa’s developmental agenda will be well served by ensuring a reliable and secure water management system. Water security helps to reduce poverty, advances education, supports productivity and increases living standards. Most of all an improved quality of life, especially for the poor and most vulnerable, will result from <a href="https://www.gwp.org/en/About/why/the-water-challenge/">good water governance</a>.</p>
<p>No country or city can afford to be without a reliable source of water. A no regrets strategy takes a precautionary approach that avoids a water crisis from escalating into failure.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/106261/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Kevin Winter does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>South Africa is a water stressed country but crisis point can be avoided.Kevin Winter, Senior Lecturer in Environmental & Geographical Science, University of Cape TownLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1065582018-11-08T10:37:00Z2018-11-08T10:37:00ZSouth Africa's commissions of inquiry: what good can they do?<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/244524/original/file-20181108-74772-5karpy.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&amp;q=45&amp;auto=format&amp;w=496&amp;fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Former South African Deputy Finance Minister Mcebisi Jonas gave damning evidence at the State capture commission.
</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Sunday Times/Alan Skuy</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>South Africans might be forgiven for expecting two key commissions of inquiry currently underway to change the country. Some of these expectations, however, are unrealistic, as a look at the commissions’ functions and powers show. </p>
<p>Some expectations might be met, but only if the commissions achieve public buy-in and generate enough pressure for change. </p>
<p>Whether they can do that depends not only on their powers but also on how they are run.</p>
<p>The probe into tax administration and governance at the <a href="http://www.thepresidency.gov.za/press-statements/president-ramaphosa-establishes-commission-inquiry-tax-administration-and">South African Revenue Service</a> – headed by Judge R Nugent – and has already led to the axing of Tom Moyane as head of the tax collection agency. The other inquiry – headed by Deputy Chief Justice Zondo – is looking into allegations that the South African state has been <a href="https://www.sastatecapture.org.za/">captured</a> by private business interests allied to former President Jacob Zuma. It’s expected to run for two years.</p>
<p>Unrealistic expectations about what commissions can achieve come from the fact that they’re often confused with courts of law. This isn’t surprising given that they seem to function like courts. For example, they’re often chaired by judges, affected parties are often represented by lawyers and witnesses take oaths to tell the truth. </p>
<p>But they aren’t courts. And it’s important to understand the difference between the two when it comes to their functions, powers, and procedures.</p>
<h2>The differences</h2>
<p>A court judgment is binding and has direct legal effect on the parties involved. The court will determine that the accused goes to prison, for example, or that the defendant pays damages. The only way affected parties can escape the court order is by getting it overturned on appeal or review by a higher court. </p>
<p>Commissions of inquiry, on the other hand, make non-binding recommendations to the person who set them up. (In the case of these two commissions, that’s President Cyril Ramaphosa.) Technically, all commissions do is offer the person who set them up advice. And they’re required to stick to the issues on which advice was requested. These are set out in the terms of reference which establish what questions the commission must answer, who will head it up and what its powers are. </p>
<p>Commissions of inquiry are completely different from courts when it comes to procedures too. </p>
<p>South Africans courts are adversarial. The judge sits as an outside observer while the two teams before her attempt to establish their version of events. Commissions of inquiry, on the other hand, are inquisitorial. This makes the commission the driver of the investigation itself. It seeks out the facts rather than waiting for two opposing parties to choose and present their evidence. In an inquisitorial process, the witnesses and their lawyers are <a href="https://www.politicsweb.co.za/documents/moyane-vs-sars-inquiry-judge-nugents-ruling">merely assisting</a> the commission’s investigation.</p>
<p>An important consequence of the inquisitorial process is that a commission is not bound by the same rules of evidence as in a court. Thus evidence will never be “inadmissible”, as the commission enjoys discretion to consider all evidence that it finds relevant to its inquiry. </p>
<h2>Why the confusion</h2>
<p>With these important distinctions in mind, why have some commissions become “judicialised” and lawyer-driven? Why was the first day of the Zondo Commission taken <a href="https://www.dailymaverick.co.za/opinionista/2018-08-21-zondo-turns-the-first-day-of-state-capture-inquiry-into-a-massive-yawn-fest/">up with technicalities</a>? Why have postponements been built into the process so that “implicated parties” can study the allegations made against them?</p>
<p>It’s not just to stave off the threat of a court challenge to any findings. Such a threat is, in fact, not much of a threat at all. Commissions of inquiry will not be subject to the (higher) standards of so-called “administrative” review unless their findings have a direct effect on the persons who might want to challenge them. But the direct effect would arise only when the president acts on the findings. </p>
<p>The president wouldn’t be subject to administrative review in many of these cases either. Instead, the president and the commission will be subject to review for “rationality”. A rationality review asks only whether there is a rational connection between the conduct challenged before the court and a legitimate governmental objective. </p>
<p>But commissions have another, equally crucial function – to educate the public and ensuring its buy-in for important processes of change and renewal.</p>
<figure class="align-right ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/244356/original/file-20181107-74769-14otren.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&amp;q=45&amp;auto=format&amp;w=237&amp;fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/244356/original/file-20181107-74769-14otren.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&amp;q=45&amp;auto=format&amp;w=600&amp;h=400&amp;fit=crop&amp;dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/244356/original/file-20181107-74769-14otren.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&amp;q=30&amp;auto=format&amp;w=600&amp;h=400&amp;fit=crop&amp;dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/244356/original/file-20181107-74769-14otren.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&amp;q=15&amp;auto=format&amp;w=600&amp;h=400&amp;fit=crop&amp;dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/244356/original/file-20181107-74769-14otren.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&amp;q=45&amp;auto=format&amp;w=754&amp;h=503&amp;fit=crop&amp;dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/244356/original/file-20181107-74769-14otren.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&amp;q=30&amp;auto=format&amp;w=754&amp;h=503&amp;fit=crop&amp;dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/244356/original/file-20181107-74769-14otren.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&amp;q=15&amp;auto=format&amp;w=754&amp;h=503&amp;fit=crop&amp;dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Tom Moyane has been fired as South Africa’s tax boss.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Sunday Times/Masi Losi</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>South Africans are already incensed at the loss of public funds to corruption, the devastation of public institutions at the hands of those who sought to profit by it, the damage this has caused to the country’s economy and the suffering it has inflicted on the poorest in society. </p>
<p>But all South Africans have to be on board with the solution to the problem. This sort of buy-in is possible only if the facts are widely known, the relevant law is clear, and the commission investigating the problem is accessible to the public and is seen as legitimate.</p>
<p>A commission can achieve this by having open hearings, broadcast publicly, public access (such as a <a href="https://www.sastatecapture.org.za/">website</a> and an enquiry desk) and a strong, independent commissioner. </p>
<p>This is where the judicial procedure comes in. Although it can render the body <a href="http://rabble.ca/blogs/bloggers/views-expressed/2014/10/national-inquiry-mmiw-yes-do-it-right">less accessible</a>, it does have the strong advantage of satisfying people’s innate sense of natural justice.</p>
<p>And the decisions of the commissions will only have legitimacy in the eyes of the public if they are seen to <a href="https://www.dailymaverick.co.za/article/2018-11-02-with-moyanes-dismissal-ramaphosas-slo-mo-revolution-claims-a-crucial-scalp/">treat people fairly</a>. That is one of the reasons why implicated people need enough time to respond to the allegations against them.</p>
<h2>The value of the commissions</h2>
<p>The Nugent Commission is due to report soon while the Zondo Commission may take two years. </p>
<p>The long delay between the advent of a crisis and a commission’s report is often used as an argument that they’re being used to put matters <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/world/2004/feb/03/law.politics">“on hold”</a>. </p>
<p>However, commissions of inquiry don’t remove an issue from the public eye if they’re run openly and transparently. Instead, they draw the public in to the issue, educating and inviting engagement. The most important work of the Zondo and Nugent Commissions might be done before their formal function – the submission of their reports – is completed.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/106558/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Cathleen Powell does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Unrealistic expectations about what commissions can achieve comes from the fact that they're often confused with courts of law.Cathleen Powell, Associate Professor in Public Law, University of Cape TownLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1063702018-11-05T15:33:32Z2018-11-05T15:33:32ZWilliam Kentridge: the barbarity of the 'Great War' told through an African lens<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/243908/original/file-20181105-83648-amc811.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&amp;q=45&amp;auto=format&amp;w=496&amp;fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">William Kentridge</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Goodman Gallery</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>Produced towards the end of the four-year celebrations of the centenary of the <a href="http://www.greatwar.co.uk/">“Great War”</a> of 1914-18, the dramatic art performance of South African-born artist <a href="https://zeitzmocaa.museum/artists/william-kentridge/">William Kentridge</a> – <a href="https://www.tate.org.uk/whats-on/tate-modern/performance/head-load">“The Head &amp; the Load”</a> –explodes the traditional understanding of this conflict as a “World War”. </p>
<p>Congolese independence leader <a href="https://www.sahistory.org.za/people/patrice-lumumba">Patrice Lumumba</a> had famously mocked European <a href="https://www.marxists.org/subject/africa/lumumba/1960/08/25.htm">pretensions</a> ennobling what he called their tribal conflicts into World War status. Kentridge attacks the idea from a different point of view. His project focuses on the impact this “European War” had on the colonies of the principals. It’s an impact that was ignored at the time and subsequently written out of history. </p>
<p>The British, French and German armies employed hundreds of thousands of African support troops for their war in Africa. The Africans were not allowed to carry arms for fear they might turn against them. Many died from sickness or privation in the course of the war. </p>
<p>As an instance, “The Head &amp; the Load” tells the story of how, when the railway and other forms of regular transport from Cape Town to Lake Tanganika gave out, a ship was dismembered and carried to its destination on the heads of African porters. </p>
<p>The original production of “The Head &amp; the Load” was staged in the massive Turbine Hall of the Tate Modern Museum in London <a href="https://www.tate.org.uk/whats-on/tate-modern/performance/head-load">in July this year</a>. It paraded mechanised sculptures and actors. Some bore loads on their head and cast giant shadows before a constantly changing backdrop of animated drawings. </p>
<p>An exhibition of a reduced version is on display at the Goodman Gallery in Johannesburg. <a href="http://www.goodman-gallery.com/exhibitions/950">“Kaboom!”</a> entails an exhibition of drawings that were used in the original production, with drawings from Kentridge’s staging of both Austrian composer <a href="http://www.bach-cantatas.com/Lib/Berg-Alban.htm">Alban Berg</a>’s opera <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2017/08/09/arts/music/review-william-kentridge-wozzeck-salzburg-met-opera.html">“Wozzeck”</a> and German artist <a href="https://www.guggenheim.org/artwork/artist/kurt-schwitters">Kurt Schwitters</a>’ <a href="https://hyperallergic.com/410042/william-kentridge-incants-kurt-schwitterss-dada-sound-poem-performa/">sound poem</a> <a href="https://dangerousminds.net/comments/flipping_ursonate_the_greatest_sound_poem_of_the_20th_century_the_bird">“Ursonate”</a>. </p>
<p>The collection signals the artist’s deep opposition to the barbarity of war. It also shows his attachment to the language of Dada that evolved at the time to critique it. Walking a ship through Africa is patently absurd. </p>
<p>Kentridge underlines the lunacy of the project in every part of the production – from ruined landscapes to caricatural imagery to ironic captions and <a href="https://www.philipmiller.info/">composer Philip Miller’s</a> fairground-inspired accompaniment. One drawing of a destroyed landscape is dominated by a version of one of the heads in French painter <a href="https://www.theartstory.org/artist-gericault-theodore.htm">Théodore Géricault’s</a> work <a href="https://www.theartstory.org/artist-gericault-theodore-artworks.htm">“Guillotined heads”</a>. It bears the annotation “This is a Fair Idea of Progress”.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/243903/original/file-20181105-83638-w25sce.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&amp;q=45&amp;auto=format&amp;w=754&amp;fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/243903/original/file-20181105-83638-w25sce.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&amp;q=45&amp;auto=format&amp;w=600&amp;h=463&amp;fit=crop&amp;dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/243903/original/file-20181105-83638-w25sce.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&amp;q=30&amp;auto=format&amp;w=600&amp;h=463&amp;fit=crop&amp;dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/243903/original/file-20181105-83638-w25sce.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&amp;q=15&amp;auto=format&amp;w=600&amp;h=463&amp;fit=crop&amp;dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/243903/original/file-20181105-83638-w25sce.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&amp;q=45&amp;auto=format&amp;w=754&amp;h=582&amp;fit=crop&amp;dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/243903/original/file-20181105-83638-w25sce.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&amp;q=30&amp;auto=format&amp;w=754&amp;h=582&amp;fit=crop&amp;dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/243903/original/file-20181105-83638-w25sce.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&amp;q=15&amp;auto=format&amp;w=754&amp;h=582&amp;fit=crop&amp;dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">From William Kentridge’s ‘Kaboom!’</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Goodman Gallery</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Processions</h2>
<p>Tellingly, Kentridge interprets the line of porters moving across the landscape as a procession. It’s a motif that he has used often in his work. Processions of the urban poor feature prominently in his early animated <a href="https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/00043389.2014.11877205">“Drawings for Projection”</a> but they take on an absurdist note in works such as the arc drawing <a href="https://www.tate.org.uk/art/artworks/kentridge-arc-procession-develop-catch-up-even-surpass-t07668">“Develop, Catch Up, Even Surpass”</a> (1990, Tate Modern) – as <a href="https://www.sahistory.org.za/people/haile-selassie-i">Haile Selassie’s</a> government exhorted the Ethiopian people in 1974 to compete with the industrialised economies of the First World shortly before the Emperor was finally deposed. </p>
<p>The <em><a href="https://en.oxforddictionaries.com/definition/charivari">charivari</a></em> (a noisy mock serenade performed by a group of people to celebrate a marriage or mock an unpopular person), or <em>Danse Macabre</em> element of the procession is developed into dramatic form in <a href="https://zeitzmocaa.museum/art/sweetly-play-dance/">“More Sweetly Play the Dance”</a>. It is a 2015 video installation currently showing at Zeitz Mocaa in Cape Town. </p>
<p>It’s also been evolved in monumental scale, in <a href="https://www.domusweb.it/en/art/2016/06/10/william_kentridge_triumphs_and_laments.html">“Triumphs and Laments”</a>, Kentridge’s stencilled dirt drawing on the banks of the Tiber in Rome (2016). In its ephemeral dirt medium, its placement - between the city’s Jewish ghetto and St Peter’s Basilica - and its elaborate iconography, “Triumphs and Laments” seeks to replace a unitary, invariably heroic, account of Roman history by a less glamorous version of the city’s past. In the process, it makes clear that all history is inevitably fragmentary, provisional and partisan. </p>
<h2>How history is written</h2>
<p>Like the Roman mural, “The Head &amp; the Load” shows that history is written to serve specific interests and that there are always victims of this endeavour. </p>
<p>Correcting the absolutist version of history involves both the deconstruction of the heroic ideal – the demonstration of its fallibility and its dark side – and the bringing to light whole aspects of the past that have been ignored or suppressed. </p>
<p>For Kentridge the Dada procession effects both purposes in appropriately iconoclastic fashion.</p>
<p>The fragmentary and provisional that Kentridge understands as the true nature of history is replicated in his drawing style. It comes to the fore in several parts of the current “Kaboom!” exhibition. In fact, it dates back from the beginning of his career. Kentridge draws quickly in charcoal, refusing the naturalistic tendency of colour and indicating forms and spaces quite summarily. </p>
<p>His “Drawings for Projection” are similarly open and incomplete in terms of both physical definition and narrative sense. Kentridge makes his movies by filming a drawing, altering it slightly, and filming it again to produce the idea of movement until the sequence is finished. He describes this method as <a href="https://www.fastcompany.com/1561390/stone-age-animation-digital-world-william-kentridge-moma">“stone-age film-making”</a> whose very “indeterminacy” is a means to refuse definitive reading of any given form, action or narrative. </p>
<p>For Kentridge, this searching and erasure serves a model for understanding our place in the world. It has a profound moral dimension over and above any overt moral in the subject of his drawing or the narrative of his film. </p>
<p>Needless to say, the same indeterminacy that allows the artist to search for the appropriate response to his subject provides an opening, a point of entry for his viewer.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/106370/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Michael Godby does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>For William Kentridge, searching and erasure serves as a model for understanding our place in the world.Michael Godby, Emeritus Professor, University of Cape TownLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1058912018-11-05T15:33:08Z2018-11-05T15:33:08ZMental health genetics: African solutions for African challenges<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/243844/original/file-20181105-83626-3q3tdi.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&amp;q=45&amp;auto=format&amp;w=496&amp;fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">There are concerns that Africa may be excluded from advances in genetic brain research brain.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Shutterstock</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>Over the past two decades, mental health research has advanced markedly. But most <a href="https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/28774809">mental health studies</a> haven’t included African people – either as researchers or as participants. This raises an all too familiar concern that Africa
could be a bystander as advances in molecular and genetic research of the brain proceed at a breakneck speed. </p>
<p>A turning point in this disparity has been the realisation that the involvement of Africa in mental health research is vitally important. This is true for two reasons. Firstly, science that doesn’t include diverse population groups risks being biased, inaccurate and incomplete. Secondly, African populations are genetically <a href="https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/28774809">the most diverse</a> due to the continent’s unique position as a <a href="https://www.nature.com/articles/nature22336">land of origins</a>. </p>
<p>Missing this diversity has held back the progress of mental health genetics <a href="https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/28774809">research</a>.</p>
<p>A dedicated <a href="https://ginger.sph.harvard.edu/">group</a> of African and non-African researchers, clinicians and institutions are working to reverse this trend and make up for lost time. </p>
<p>But, the challenges are formidable.</p>
<p>The first is that there’s been a bias in medical research in Africa towards communicable diseases. This includes HIV, tuberculosis and malaria. The need to eradicate these diseases can not be over emphasised. But this shouldn’t be at the expense of issues such as mental health and its associated repercussions. </p>
<p>The second problem relates to budgetary constraints. Mental health disorders account for <a href="https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0110208">approximately 19%</a> of the overall years lived with a disability in African countries. But less than 1% of the health budgets of countries is attributed to mental health.</p>
<p>Thirdly, not many clinical trials and genetic studies have been done on the continent. Often, policymakers consider genetics a distraction to the more urgent problems faced on the continent.</p>
<p>Lastly, government agencies and institutions find it difficult to justify allocation of funds to genetics studies and mental health research. But given the pace of technical and analytic developments in the field, African scientists can no longer afford to ignore the possibility that the opportunities may outweigh the perils of genetic research.</p>
<h2>Breaking down barriers</h2>
<p>So what can be done?</p>
<p>One initiative that’s trying to break down some of the barriers is the <a href="https://h3africa.org/">Human Heredity and Health in Africa</a> (H3Africa). This organisation is invested in understanding health and disease in African populations by providing research opportunities to study the interplay between environmental and genetic factors that affect the spread of diseases.</p>
<p>The initiative is also leading efforts to get the public, institutions and governments engaged on genetic research in mental health disorders. This is part of an effort to close the knowledge gap so that insights from genetics are more accessible and understandable. </p>
<p>Another initiative, designed to address the problem of a lack of expertise, is being driven by the <a href="https://ginger.sph.harvard.edu/">Global Initiative for Neuropsychiatric Genetic Education in Research</a>. Genetics research is highly complex and requires knowledge in areas ranging from computational sciences to ethical studies. The initiative is bridging the training and capacity gaps of mental health genetic research in Africa through online classrooms and onsite visits for early-career African researchers. </p>
<p>In addition to analytic experience, the curriculum teaches a range of skills including time management, communication, networking, and building interpersonal relationships. All are designed to help fellows become independent researchers. </p>
<p>The programme is committed to producing the next generation of African researchers. And to set the foundation for these fellows to mentor, train and produce a second generation of scientists. </p>
<p>The hope is that the programme will also spearhead a new level of collaboration between African institutions and overseas collaborators. This too can help overcome the shortage of skilled genetic researchers in Africa. </p>
<p>Two other initiatives are also helping advance mental health research, though they aren’t specifically focused on the genetics of mental health. These are the <a href="https://amari-africa.org/">African Mental Health Research Initiative</a> and the <a href="https://www.friendshipbenchzimbabwe.org/">Friendship Bench Project</a>. Both have paved the way for increased funding, collaboration and understanding of mental health in Africa. </p>
<h2>Additional hurdles to overcome</h2>
<p>Even after the research hurdles have been cleared, other challenges will have to be addressed. </p>
<p>Chief among these is the need to assuage people’s fears about taking part in genetic studies. Misconception, stigma, and socio-cultural prohibitions have hampered genomic research in Africa. Participants tend to feel uneasy about the long-term use of their blood and tissue samples in genomic research. </p>
<p>This means that a lot of work still needs to be done to encourage people to take part in studies by contributing biological samples and clinical data. </p>
<p>On top of this, methods need to be found to extract samples that are both affordable and non-invasive. And finally, participants must be afforded the chance to make informed decisions about taking part in research. In particular, those with diminished or impaired autonomy need special protection.</p>
<p>Some work has already been done to address these issues. For example, H3Africa developed guidelines on the export of samples from African countries. But it’s unclear if all institutions adhere to them. </p>
<p>And there are still big gaps. <a href="https://bmcmedethics.biomedcentral.com/articles/10.1186/1472-6939-12-5">Most African countries</a> don’t have policies for health-related research so harmonisation isn’t possible. There’s also no comprehensive framework to guide mental health neuropsychiatric genetics research in Africa. This needs to be developed and should take into account how best to mobilise local and international resources.</p>
<p>Our continent provides incredible diversity and a wealth of knowledge that needs to be tapped. </p>
<p>_Fellows from the Global Initiative for Neuropsychiatric Genetic Education in Research (GINGER) contributed to this article: Felicita Omari, Benedict Akimana, Melkam Alemayhu, Shareefa Dalvie, Abebe Ejigu, Michelle Hoogenhout, Allan Kalungi, Symon M. Kariuki, Nastassja Koen, Lerato Majara, Jackline Mmochi, Emmanuel K. Mwesiga, Linnet Ongeri, Abigiya Wondimagegnehu Tilahun _</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/105891/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Dr Nathaniel McGregor receives funding from the National Research Foundation (NRF) (Thuthuka). Additionally Dr McGregor is affiliated with the Schizophrenia Research Group in the Department of Psychiatry at Stellenbosch University, a member of the SU/ UCT MRC Unit on Risk and Resilience in Mental Disorders housed in the Department of Psychiatry at Stellenbosch University, co-founder of the Systems Genetics Working Group in the Department of Genetics at Stellenbosch University, and an inaugural member of the Global Initiative for Neuropsychiatric Genetics Education in Research (GINGER) programme hosted by the Stanley Center for Psychiatric Research, Broad Institute, Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health and MIT.</span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Benyam Worku Dubale and Celia van der Merwe do not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and have disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>There's been significant advances in mental health genetics research, but Africa has largely been excluded.Benyam Worku Dubale, Assistant Professor and Head, Department of Psychiatry, Addis Ababa UniversityCelia van der Merwe, Post doctoral research fellow, University of Cape TownDr Nathaniel McGregor, Lecturer and Researcher, Department of Genetics; & SU/ UCT MRC Unit on Risk and Resilience in Mental Disorders, Stellenbosch UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.